Deaths from cancer on the rise

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Published Jul 7, 2016

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Johannesburg - Because of the devastating impact of HIV/Aids on healthcare trends over the past 20 years, not enough attention has been focused on cancer.

Consequently, South Africa has recorded an increase in the cancer death rate for both men and women since 1994.

This is according to a report published by the South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR), showing that the death rate for all cancers increased for men from 65.4/100 000 people in 1994 to 71.2/100 000 in 2013.

“In 2013, 68.8 of every 100 000 women in the country died of cancer. Cancer treatment is more expensive and complex than HIV treatment, so it is possible that sufferers will find it more difficult to access effective treatment,” the report, released this week, noted.

Prostate, intestinal and colon cancers showed particularly sharp increases.

The data was contained in a broader report the SAIRR released about the public and private healthcare sectors in South Africa.

Research analyst Tawanda Makombo said: “Cancer is a lifestyle disease. Counter-intuitively, the increases measured in the report would seem to corroborate other SAIRR research that living standards in South Africa are improving.

“The SAIRR has, for example, identified a significant increase in the size of the middle class over the past 20 years.”

According to the report, which sourced information from the National Treasury’s 2016 Budget review, since 1994, public spending on healthcare as a share of total healthcare costs has increased, but private expenditure has fallen.

Combined national and provincial expenditure for 2016/17 of R167.5bn accounts for almost 12 percent of total government spending and just under 4 percent of gross domestic product.

The report also looked into the ratio of doctor to patient and nurse to patient in the public sector.

The data indicated that there were 4 024 people for every public sector doctor in the country.

The ratio is worst in North West (5 500 patients to a doctor) and best in the Northern Cape (2 738), possibly due to the low population density.

Makombo added: “The report identifies some real successes in the public healthcare system. Most notably these are around HIV awareness and treatment campaigns that have improved significantly over the past six to seven years.

“We see, for example, that life expectancy is again increasing after it fell sharply during the era of President Thabo Mbeki.”

The report found other successes in areas such as the still-birth rate and infant mortality.

The stillbirth rate, for example, fell from 27 babies born dead out of every 1 000 births in 2001 to 21 in 2014.

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