Brics: SA unhealthiest of all - PDF document

  Brics: SA unhealthiest of all SOUTH Africans get a worse deal on health than the resid­ents of any other Brics coun­try, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said yesterday. On aggregate, South Africa fared worse than Brazil, Rus­sia, India and China on standard health indicators, he said in KwaZulu-Natal. The average South African was expected to live until 54, while the Chinese could live to the age of 74, Brazilians to 73, Russians 68, and Indians 65. Infant mortality in South Africa stood at 43 deaths per 1 000 live births, and 62 children out of every 1000 would not make it to their fifth birthday. Only India had worse fig­ures, at 50 and 66 deaths per 1 000 respectively. By comparison, Brazil and China had an infant mortal­ity rate of 17 deaths per 1 000 live births, and Russia of 11 deaths per 1 000. Maternal mortality made for bleak reading. According to Motsoaledi, on average 410 SA mothers out of 100 000 died during pregnancy or childbirth. In India that fig­ure was 230, in Brazil 58, in Russia 39, and in China 38. Motsoaledi said the num­ber of people who died annu­ally in SA went from 317 131 to 612 462 between 1997 and 2006. Many of SA's dire mortality statistics could be attributed to communicable diseases, especially HIV and tuberculosis. SA fared fairly well in curb­ing smoking. Russia, China, and India all had greater per­centages of tobacco smoking in men older than 15 than SA's 29,5%. In Russia, 70,1% of men over the age of 15 were smokers. Brazil had the best figures, with only 19,4% of men smoking. - Sapa. Brics: SA unhealthiest of all Date: 31 July 2012 Publication: CITIZEN Page Number: 8 Author: Sapa Language: English Categories:  Health - General