JOHANNESBURG, South Africa—In an implicit but devastating account of the havoc AIDS is causing here, South Africa’s government reported yesterday that annual deaths increased 57 percent from 1997 to 2003, with common AIDS-related diseases such as tuberculosis and pneumonia fueling much of the rise.
The increase in mortality spanned all age groups, but was most pronounced among those between ages 15 and 49, where deaths more than doubled. Working-age adults are more sexually active than the rest of the population, and the opportunity for transmitting HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus, is greatest among members of this group.
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The report states that 499,000 of South Africa’s roughly 44 million people died in 2002, up sharply from 318,000 in 1997. Much of that increase appears to result from HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Experts agree that there are at least 5 million HIV-positive citizens here, the most of any nation.
The report concluded that the average number of deaths in South Africa rose from 870 per day in 1997 to 1,370 in 2002, an increase that could not be explained by the 10 percent increase in population during those years.
(Posted on February 22, 2005)