SA’s improving perinatal death stats a testament to HIV treatment, says Pali Lehohla
SA’s perinatal mortality rate fell to its lowest level in more than a decade in 2015 as more women gained access to HIV treatment, statistician-general Pali Lehohla says. "In many ways it’s an indicator of improvement in the health system," he said on Monday. The changes in SA’s perinatal mortality rate over time bore the "stamp" of SA’s HIV/AIDS epidemic, said Lehohla. The perinatal mortality rate was highest in the early 2000s, when there was little or no treatment for HIV-positive pregnant women, and fell as treatment became more readily available, he said. Perinatal deaths include stillborn babies and those who die within a week after they are born. Stats SA’s latest perinatal report, published on its website, shows the perinatal mortality rate was 17.4 per 1,000 births in 2015, a 6.9% decline on the 2014 figure of 18.7 deaths per 1,000 births. In 2004, there were 21.4 perinatal deaths per 1,000 births. There were a total of 21,378 perinatal deaths in 2015, of which 13,702 (64%)...
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