Hunger claims 11% of NCape kids

Shocking statistics have revealed that over one in ten deaths among kids in the Northern Cape is caused by hunger.

Kimberley - Shocking statistics by Stats SA have revealed that more than one in ten deaths among children in the Province is caused by hunger.

Malnutrition, which accounted for 11.1 percent of deaths among children aged one to 14 years in the Northern Cape, is the second leading cause of death in this age group, topped only by intestinal infectious diseases (which were responsible for 18.7 percent of deaths in this age group).

HIV disease accounted for 6.7 percent of deaths of children.

Other interesting facts revealed in Stats SA’s report on Mortality and Causes of Death in South Africa 2014, released earlier this week, shows that the Province also has the highest percentage of suicides in the country; more people die as a result of transport accidents here than anywhere else in the country; the Province has the highest percentage of infant deaths in the country; almost one in five people in the John Taolo Gaetsewe District die from HIV diseases; and HIV disease is the biggest killer in the Province.

According to the report, the Northern Cape is one of only three Provinces in the country where HIV disease, which accounts for almost one in 10 deaths in the Province, is still the biggest killer.

The total number of deaths in the Northern Cape in 2014 was 14 056 - of which 1 188 people (8.5 percent) died from HIV disease.

For females, the virus is the biggest killer, accounting for 9.4 percent of female deaths, while for males the biggest killer is tuberculosis (8.4 percent).

Besides HIV disease, the leading causes of death for women were tuberculosis (6.3 percent), followed by hypertensive diseases (6.2 percent), cerebrovascular disease (6.1 percent) and diabetes mellitus (5.4 percent).

For men in the Province, the top five causes of death were tuberculosis (8.4 percent), HIV disease (7.6 percent), chronic lower respiratory diseases (5 percent), influenza and pneumonia (4.6 percent) and cerebrovascular diseases (4.3 percent).

After HIV disease, the second leading overall cause of death for males and females combined in the Province was tuberculosis (accounting for 7.4 percent of all deaths), followed by cerebrovascular disease (5.1 percent), hypertensive disease (5 percent), influenza and pneumonia (4.5 percent), chronic lower respiratory disease (4.2 percent), diabetes mellitus (4.1 percent) ischemic heart disease (3.5 percent), other forms of heart disease (3.2 percent) and malignant neoplasm of digestive organs (2.4 percent).

Tuberculosis was the leading cause of death in the Pixley ka Seme and Siyanda district municipalities, while HIV disease was the leading underlying cause of death in Francis Baard and John Taolo Gaetsewe.

The only district in the Province where HIV was not among the ten leading underlying causes of death was in Namakwa. Here ischemic heart diseases were the leading underlying cause of death.

The district with the highest percentage in the country of deaths due to HIV disease was John Taolo Gaetsewe in the Northern Cape (17.5 percent).

The top six underlying causes of death that were common for all nine provinces were diabetes mellitus, HIV disease, cerebrovascular diseases, tuberculosis, hypertensive disease, and other forms of heart disease. However, the ranks of these causes differed widely across the provinces.

Ischaemic heart diseases featured in four provinces, namely Western Cape, Northern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.

The Northern Cape and North West also had the highest proportion of infant deaths in the country, namely 6.9 percent and 7.3 percent respectively.

The John Taolo Gaetsewe District in Northern Cape had the highest proportion of deaths occurring during infancy, accounting for 11,3 percent deaths in this district, followed by Dr Ruth Segomotsi in North West (9,8 percent) and Amajuba in KwaZulu-Natal (9,4 percent).

The leading cause of deaths in infants was intestinal infectious diseases (13.5 percent), respiratory and cardiovascular disorders (13.2 percent), influenza and pneumonia (8.9 percent), disorders related to length of gestation and foetal growth (7.2 percent), other disorders originating in the perinatal period (7.2 percent), foetus and newborn affect by maternal factors and complications of pregnancy (3.7 percent), malnutrition (3.3 percent), HIV virus (3.2 percent), infections (2.5 percent) and other acute lower respiratory infections (1.9 percent).

In six of the nine provinces, most deaths occurred in the age group 65 years and older, while for KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga most deaths occurred in the age group 15 to 44 years.

The Northern Cape is the only province where deaths occurred more in age group 45 to 64 years (31.5 percent of all deaths in the Province). The leading cause of death in this age group was tuberculosis, followed by HIV disease.

Namakwa in Northern Cape had the second highest (34.2 percent) number of deaths in the country in this age group.

Among the elderly (65 years and above), Overberg in the Western Cape and Namakwa in the Northern Cape had the highest proportions (47.2 percent and 43.5 percent respectively).

The leading cause of death among the elderly was hypertensive disease, followed by cerebrovascular disease and diabetes mellitus. HIV disease was not among the top ten killers in this age group.

In the 15 to 44 year old group, however, it was the leading cause of death in the Province, claiming the lives of 1 188 people in this age group, followed by tuberculosis.

The 2014 registered deaths were mostly characterised by more male deaths than female deaths. Out of the 52 districts in the country, 44 districts had more male deaths and seven districts had more female deaths - as high as 135 male deaths per 100 female deaths in the Namakwa district.

The Northern Cape also had the distinction of having the second highest proportion of deaths due to non-natural causes (11.1 percent). The Western Cape had the highest (13.7 percent).

The most common causes of non-natural deaths in this Province were other external causes of accidental injury (35 percent), followed by transport accidents (30 percent).

The proportion of deaths due to transport accidents was highest in Northern Cape, followed by Limpopo (29.5 percent of non-natural deaths). However, Limpopo had the highest number of transport accident deaths, with 1 164 deaths as compared to 474 for Northern Cape.

Assault accounted for 21.8 percent of deaths in the Province, while intentional self-harm accounts for 5.4 percent (84 deaths). The Northern Cape had the highest percentage of suicides in the country - almost five times more than most other provinces.

Complications of medical and surgical care accounted for 2.9 percent of the Province’s deaths.

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