HIV is now the third leading cause of death in South Africa, Statistician General Pali Lehohla revealed in Cape Town.
An improved reporting regime and not actual deaths as a result of HIV had led to the virus moving from sixth-leading cause of death in 2012 to its current spot, Lehohla said of the 2013 mortality and causes of death report.
“HIV is number three, does that mean that HIV has increased? The evidence in terms of the reality point to a different direction,” Lehohla said.
“It's a fact of reporting not so much that HIV and Aids deaths have increased.”
Doctors felt more comfortable stating HIV as the cause of death because of a change in the “regime of insurance companies”.
“Insurance companies wouldn't pay for people who have died from HIV, but now because... the regimes of insurance companies have changed as a result of legislation, HIV/Aids is now easily reported upon,” said Lehohla.
Stats SA and the Medical Research Council had been training doctors on reporting causes of death, which had also contributed to the rise in the number of reported HIV deaths.
Overall, deaths in South Africa continued to decline.
“The number of deaths that occurred in 2013 was 458,933, indicating that the number of deaths continue to decline in the country as observed from 2007,” according to the report.
The 2013 figure was 6.5 percent less than in 2012, when there were 491,100 deaths.
Tuberculosis remained the number one killer in South Africa, responsible for 8.8 percent of all deaths, down from 9.9 percent in 2012.
Influenza and pneumonia accounted for 5.2 percent of all deaths in 2013, compared to 5.5 percent in 2012.
HIV was responsible for 3.9 percent of all deaths in 2013, compared to 5.1 percent in 2012.
Sapa