South Africa is suffering from a "quadruple burden of disease" -
HIV/Aids, underdevelopment, chronic diseases related to
unhealthy lifestyles, and injuries, the Medical Research Council
said on Wednesday. Data in a report titled Dietary changes and
the health transition in SA: implications for health policy,
showed that the prevalence of HIV among pregnant women attending
public clinics has increased from 0.8 percent in 1990 to 27.3
percent in 2003, "reflecting the remarkable spread of the
epidemic". It is estimated that in 2004 about 12 percent of the
total population was infected with the virus and that by the
year 2000, HIV/Aids had become the single biggest cause of death
in South Africa. HIV infection rate to peak in 2013 Under the
chapter on communicable disease burden, authors of the report
said allowing for the impact of government's treatment
intervention, the number of infected persons was projected to
peak in 2013 and then decrease slowly, "while the number of
Aids-sick persons increases slowly". I