afrol News / PlusNews, 25 May - South Africa is one of only seven countries on the continent where child deaths are rising, reversing a steady drop that began in the mid-1990s, according to health experts attending a two-day conference on child survival in Cape Town.

David Bourne, of the University of Cape Town's school of public health, attributed this reversal to HIV/AIDS.

Figures from the South African Medical Research Council (MRC) for 2000 identify HIV as the main cause of mortality in South African children under five, accounting for 40 percent of deaths. The council estimates that death rates among infants have risen from about 40 per 1,000 in the mid-1990s to around 60 per 1,000 at present.

Less developed countries, including Angola, Burundi and Somalia, have been more successful in curbing child deaths than South Africa, while Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Kenya, Rwanda and Swaziland also have rising child mortality rates.

By UN media PlusNews

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