The prevalence of Covid-19 infections has masked deaths related to HIV/Aids, diabetes, and tuberculosis, which still remain high, according to the Sunday Independent.
In 2020 Gauteng, Free State, Eastern Cape, Western Cape, and Limpopo recorded 8,495 tuberculosis-related deaths and 12,468 HIV/Aids-related deaths in four of the five provinces, except the Eastern Cape, where precise records were not available.
The Western Cape recorded diabetes-related deaths of 3,699 in 2018, citing lack of recent statistics due to Covid-19.
Most TB and HIV/Aids deaths occurred while patients were on the appropriate treatment. Many health activists believe that HIV/Aids, TB and diabetes have been put on the back burner, despite being amongst the leading causes of deaths in the country.
National Manager for Diabetes SA, Margot McCumisky, said, the disease has been neglected for over 30 years, with the organisation now pushing for more attention and education without success.
‘We’ve been warning the Department of Health for so long that this neglect was going to cause problems later, putting pressure on the economy, as well as the burden on the health system, among other things,’ said McCumisky.
According to McCumisky diabetes is the leading cause of death among women in the country and the second leading cause of death overall.
‘We are 0.1% behind TB. HIV/Aids has dropped to about the seventh leading cause of death, so when will the same attention be given to diabetes, to make such significant strides.
‘With 5 million or more people living with diabetes, we still don’t have accurate statistics on it, since it’s not a recordable disease. It’s very difficult to fight something when you don’t even know what it is, and the fact that people are dying from complications caused by diabetes, we are walking blind,” she said.