Mwebu ducks AIDS deaths
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2005
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South African Medical Journal
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University of Cape Town
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Abstract
As public health specialists we read with dismay a recent Medical Research Council (MRC) media release, later reprinted in the press, written by Mbewu in both his personal and official capacities as the interim president of the MRC. Entitled ‘Deaths, causes of deaths and rumours of deaths’, the piece appeared to be an intervention in a debate on whether the burden of AIDS deaths can be inferred from explicit death certification alone. It asserts, inter alia, that ‘cause of death information from death certificates are the most reliable and validated measures of mortality and changes in mortality’. We conclude from the timing of the release that it was produced in anticipation of a report on death certifications by Stats SA requested by President Mbeki and that it was directed, inter alia, at a publication by MRC and University of Cape Town researchers of an empirical analysis of death certifications designed to arrive at a complete picture of HIVrelated deaths.
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Ehrlich, R., Myers, J., Sanders, D., & Carstens, S. (2005). Mbewu ducks AIDS deaths. QJM, 98(1), 21-28.