Despairing Aids activists have accused the South African government of failing to deal with the soaring HIV epidemic, after a report indicated that the number of premature deaths in the country, many of them Aids-related, rose by 57 per cent over five years. Most of the deaths between 1997 and 2002 were attributed to tuberculosis, influenza and pneumonia, illnesses caught frequently by Aids patients.

Pali Lehohla, head of the government-run Statistics South Africa, which produced the report, said: “The numbers provide indirect evidence that the HIV epidemic in South Africa is raising the mortality levels of prime-aged adults, in that associated diseases are on the increase.” He added that the number of deaths of those aged 29 to 40 was increasing, a strong indicator of rising Aids-related mortality.

Aids lobby groups have seized on the figures to attack the government’s failure to come even close to meeting its own targets for the treatment of HIV sufferers.
Full Article: independent.co.uk

It seems pretty ridiculous to blame Mbeki. I suspect there are other forces at work. Smells like the lynch mob that tried to get Kofi Annan after he bad-mouth U.S. policy in Iraq. Mbeki has been doing such ‘unnaceptable’ things as pointing out that Winston Churchill was a racist, not to mention giving asylum to Aristide.

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