Aids: No cause to celebrate
2004-07-07 13:06
Cape Town - The Actuarial Society of SA's latest figures on HIV/Aids provide a reason to be pleased but no cause to celebrate, Democratic Alliance Aids spokesperson Mike Waters said on Wednesday.
The reviewed statistical model showed fewer South Africans were infected with the disease than earlier models predicted, he said in a statement.
"However the figure is still extremely high at five million. That means the total number of South Africans infected is second highest in the world, behind India, which has twenty times our population."
The new model also predicted 330 000 South Africans would die from Aids over the next year. That was less than predicted, but still nearly a thousand people every day.
According to the model, by 2010 between 290 000 and 450 000 people would die from Aids depending on how fast the government rolled out its antiretroviral programme.
"The difference of 160 000 people paints in stark terms the number of people whose lives are directly in the hands of the government.
"The signs for a rapid rollout are thus far not good. The government has shifted its target of 53 000 people on ARVs from March this year to March next year.
"The lives of those 160 000 South Africans are in government's hands. We can only hope they are not as careless with those lives as they have been with the lives of Aids sufferers in the past," Waters said.
- SAPA