SOUTH AFRICA: Medical Research Council releases AIDS report

The Medical Research Council (MRC) finally released a controversial report on Tuesday, after a delay because the government questioned its findings. A copy of the report, which estimated that about 25 percent of all deaths in South Africa in 2000 were due to HIV/AIDS, caused a stir in government circles when it was leaked to the media earlier this month.

The report said about 20 percent of all adult deaths in that year were due to HIV/AIDS. "When this is combined with the excess deaths in childhood from other research we have undertaken, it is estimated that AIDS accounted for 25 percent of all deaths in the year 2000 and has thus become the single biggest cause of death," the MRC said in a statement issued on Tuesday.

The statement added that without treatment to prevent the disease, the number of AIDS deaths could be expected to grow in the next 10 years to more than double the number of deaths due to all other causes, resulting in five to seven million cumulative AIDS deaths in South Africa by 2010.

The government has said that the MRC findings are not reliable and several ministers disputed the methodology used by the council. Statistics South Africa issued a statement last week saying the MRC had "no empirical evidence" to prove its findings.

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[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]