Report reveals HIV death cases are on the rise

The annual Botswana causes of mortality report of 2020 released this week reveals that the leading cause of in-patient deaths in the country is Human Immune Virus (HIV).

Close to 300 people died of HIV in 2020 compared to the 204 that died in 2019. Pneumonia was ranked the leading cause of death in the country in 2019 and HIV the third deadliest condition.

A total of 12 219 people died in Botswana in the year 2020 due to several reasons and out of those, more than half of the registered deaths were reported in health facilities of Botswana. The highest proportion of registered deaths at 22.1 percent occurred in Francistown DHMT, followed by Gaborone DHMT at 16.6 percent and Kweneng East DHMT at 11.5 percent. The lowest deaths at 0.7 percent were recorded from Chobe DHMT followed by North East DHMT at 1.0 percent.

Most of the registered deaths were from District Hospitals at 41.1 percent followed by Referral hospitals at 38.3 percent and Primary Hospitals at 20.6 percent.

The highest registered deaths were for ages 65+ (36 percent), followed by age group 55-64 years (15.6 percent). The lowest deaths were observed in the age group 5-14 years (1.1 percent) and 15-24 years (2.4 percent).

HIV is the leading cause of death for women while for men it is the second cause of death. The age group most killed by HIV is 15 to 64 years, followed by Pneumonia Unspecified. The third in line is primary Hypertension.

Among the 65+ population, the major condition which resulted in death was Hypertension (6.7 percent), followed by Pneumonia, unspecified (6.6 percent) and the third was stroke.

Neonates constitute 10.5 percent of all deaths nationwide. The top 10 constitute 69.3 percent of all neonatal deaths. There is Bacterial Sepsis of newborns and unspecified as the leading causes of mortality (13.6 percent), followed by other preterm infants (12.5 percent) and the third leading condition being extremely low birth weight at 10.5 percent.

Records further show that in general more males, 51 percent die compared to females, 49 percent.

People also die from noncommunicable diseases that affect mostly the elderly. However, most deaths are from injuries. Persons injured in unspecified motor– vehicle accidents traffic stood at 20.4 percent as the leading injury, followed by exposure to unspecified factors causing other and unspecified injury at 19.2 percent and exposure to unspecified smoke, fire and flames, 6.8 percent.