The study, which was commissioned by the cabinet after a previous interpretative
report by the Medical Research Council was questioned, found that the highest
death rate among females was in the 15-39 age group at 8.5 percent of total
mortality. African females were the most severely affected at 12.7 percent of
HIV/AIDS deaths.
White females were the least affected at only 0.7 percent of deaths due to this
cause.
In the 15 to 29 age group, HIV/AIDS deaths among females was about three times
higher than among males.
The overall proportion of deaths due to HIV/AIDS in the country had nearly
doubled from 4.6 percent in 1997 to 8.7 percent in 2001, the report said.
"We have seen for a long time here in Africa that women are infected
earlier (in age)," Dr James McIntyre, head of the Perinatal HIV/AIDS
research unit in the Chris Hani-Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto, south of
Johannesburg, told PlusNews.
This could be because of trans-generational sex where men think young girls are
safer, and forced sex, McIntyre said.
He pointed out that there were not enough HIV/AIDS tests conducted on men, but
researchers were able to conduct tests regularly on women who visited ante-natal
clinics during pregnancy.
The effect of rape on the spread of the virus was also not tested, he said.
"Many women also tend to delay seeking care because they are either too
busy looking after their family or a sick partner," McIntyre added.
Males, on the other hand, had the highest prevalence of Tuberculosis (TB) and
unspecified unnatural causes like suicides, drowning and motor accidents. The
proportion of males dying from unspecified unnatural causes was about three
times that of females.
The researchers said that because the study was confined to entries on death
certificates, further studies would be necessary to examine whether causes of
death like pneumonia and TB were related to HIV/AIDS.
The study found that the proportion of children up to the age of 14 dying from
HIV/AIDS had approximately doubled, although the primary cause of death in this
age group was from intestinal infectious diseases.
Again females had a higher rate of HIV/AIDS infection. Deaths in this age group
increased from 5.5 percent to 11.2 percent for males and from 6.1 percent to
11.6 percent for females. While 10.8 percent of females in this age group died
from HIV/AIDS in 1997, the corresponding figure stood at 16.2 percent by 2001,
the report said.
The prevalence of TB deaths was lowest among children up to the age of 14 at two
percent but malnutrition accounted for 6.5 percent and 6.1 percent of deaths
among males and females in that age group respectively.