SOUTH AFRICA - Cape Town - 6 November 2009 (BusinessDay) - The government's AIDS treatment programme may have begun to put the brakes on SA's rising death rate, a senior official of the Department of Health told Parliament yesterday.

Referring to figures released earlier this week by Statistics SA showing a slight drop in the number of deaths recorded by the Department of Home Affairs in 2006 and 2007, the deputy director-general for strategic health programmes, Yogan Pillay, said: "It might be a data problem or it might be good news. We hope at least in part it's the ARV (antiretroviral) programme."

More research was needed to determine whether the figures were part of a sustained downward trend, Pillay said.

Stats SA's latest findings are important because, while there is plenty of published evidence that ARVs save lives, there has been little South African data showing their effect on the population level.

SA was a late starter with its state- sponsored AIDS treatment programme, largely due to former president Thabo Mbeki 's doubts about the safety and efficacy of ARV medicines. Despite a fast-growing HIV/AIDS epidemic and rising deaths, the government only started providing ARV medicines in 2004. The programme started slowly, but by April this year more than 700000 people had started treatment at state health facilities. More than 900000 are expected to have been enrolled by the end of March.

Stats SA's latest mortality report, released on Monday, shows 601133 deaths were registered by home affairs in 2007, a 1,8% drop on the updated 2006 figure. But it is being cautious in interpreting the data.

Writer : Tamar Kahn
Online at : http://allafrica.com/stories/200911050007.html