[afro-nets] The public health situation in South Africa following HIV/AIDS

[A. Odutola <chpss_abo2@yahoo.com>]

The public health situation in South Africa following HIV/AIDS
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FYI:
A catastrophe in the 21st century: the public health situation
in South Africa following HIV/AIDS

Source: Journal of the Royal Society, 2005
Jul;125(4):168-71.

By: Walker AR, Walker BF, Wadee AA.
Human Biochemistry Research Unit, School of Pathology of the
University of the Witwatersrand, and National Health Laboratory
Service, P.O. Box 1038, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Email: alexander.walker@nhls.ac.za

Abstract:
During the early 1900s, African populations in South Africa were
subject to very widespread infections which especially affected
the young. This resulted in high mortality rates and a low life
expectancy of 20-25 years. By the mid-century, mortality rates
from infections had decreased considerably. Moreover, the occur-
rences of non-communicable diseases, even in urban areas, re-
mained very low. In the 1970s, the proportion of Africans aged
50 or over that reached 70 years was 38.5%, higher than that in
the juxtaposed white population, which was 35.5%. And by 1985,
the life expectancy of Africans reached 61 years for males and
63 years for females, probably the highest in sub-Saharan Afri-
can populations. Since then, however, the African continent has
been devastated by the AIDS epidemic. In 2001, HIV was responsi-
ble for the death of a third of the African population in South
Africa, but even higher proportions prevailed in Botswana and in
Tanzania. The calamitous advent of the HIV infection has caused
major falls in life expectancy, in the case of Africans in South
Africa reducing this to just 43 years. With little hope of mean-
ingful changes occurring in sexual habits or of an early vaccine
becoming available, the infection's high morbidity/mortality
burden is likely to continue.

--
A. Odutola
mailto:chpss_abo2@yahoo.com