TB is top killer

Tuberculosis (TB) is the number one killer of the black population in South Africa, according to the SA Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR). Spokeswoman Lerato Moloi said the population group was also most affected by flu, pneumonia and intestinal infectious diseases such as cholera.

She said coloured people died predominantly of TB, followed by diabetes and chronic lower respiratory diseases. The institute believes socio-economic conditions have a strong link to deaths by natural causes. It said heart disease was often linked to unhealthy lifestyles associated with middle- and upper-class living standards, whereas intestinal infectious diseases, such as cholera, were linked to things such as contaminated drinking water typically associated with poor living standards.

Whites died predominantly from ischaemic heart diseases followed by other forms of heart disease and cerebrovascular disease. The leading cause of death in the Indian population was diabetes, followed by heart disease.

The data was taken from a Statistics SA November 2010 report and analysed from a socio-economic perspective for the SAIRR's 2010/2011 SA Survey. Moloi said HIV/AIDS was among the top 10 leading causes of deaths in the black population. She said this was not the case for coloured people, Indian people or whites, and added that since TB was an opportunistic disease of HIV, this might explain why the TB mortality rate was so high among Africans.

SAPA, 2 February 2012