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South Africa doctors fear spike in non-COVID-19 deaths

Health workers are worried that the focus on coronavirus will result in more deaths from the country’s usual killers – TB, HIV and diabetes.

By Kerry Cullinan
South Africa doctors fear spike in non-COVID-19 deaths
Queues in the township of Khayelitsha, in Cape Town, South Africa, in April 2020 | Phando Jikelo/RealTime Images/ABACA/ABACA/PA Images
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Thousands of people in South Africa are avoiding health facilities, shunning life-saving treatment, out of fear of being infected by coronavirus and being harassed by police.

Even mobile clinics that provide HIV, TB and contraceptive services report a huge drop in clients – possibly because all health services are now being associated with the COVID-19 response.

“Head counts at Johannesburg clinics are down by 30% to 70%,” says Francois Venter, an infectious disease doctor at Wits University’s Faculty of Health Sciences and also a member of a special committee that is advising the South African ministry of health on COVID-19.

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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0