SOUTH AFRICA: Majority of AIDS deaths misclassified
[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
DURBAN, 8 June (PLUSNEWS) - Only twelve percent of all HIV/AIDS deaths were reported as such in South Africa, announced Dr Pam Groenewald, a senior scientist at the Medical Research Council (MRC), during the 2nd South African AIDS Conference in Durban.
Almost 90 percent of all HIV/AIDS fatalities were misclassified as twelve AIDS-related conditions, she explained. Most of them were labelled 'tuberculosis', 'ill-defined natural diseases', 'lower respiratory-tract infections', 'stroke' or 'endocrine and metabolic conditions'.
According to Groenewald, the total figure for deaths due to HIV/AIDS increased from 30 percent in 2000 to 47 percent in 2005.
However, she pointed out that the under-registration of fatalities in official South African statistics, where only 85 percent of adult deaths and 40 percent of child deaths were recorded, remained a significant problem.
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