Sign up with GoogleWatershed Aids case for SA
23/11/2006 11:14 - (SA)
http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/Aids_Focus/0,9294,2-7-659_2034597,00.html
Pretoria - A former state pathologist will face a disciplinary hearing for writing Aids as the cause of death on a woman's death certificate, labour union Solidarity said on Wednesday.
"The hearing can be a watershed for South Africa in view of the fact Aids cannot at present be entered on a death certificate as the cause of death", the union's Dirk Hermann said.
Leon Wagner is a former chief pathologist of the Free State who is currently in private practice. His disciplinary hearing will take place in Bloemfontein on Thursday.
"If he is exonerated and it is found that doctors may in future indicate Aids as the real cause of death on certificates, it would have tremendous consequences for the statistical documentation of this pandemic," Hermann said.
Currently doctors cannot indicate Aids as the cause of death.
Hermann said the hearing could have a huge impact on the insurance industry as most insurance companies did not pay out if a client died of Aids.
If Aids could be entered as the cause of death, South Africa would for the first time be able to measure the extent of mortality related to the disease.
"We would very much like to see this happening," Hermann said.
At the preliminary hearings Wagner said he had been told that the case against him was not a legal one, but a "moral issue about which the government is sensitive".
"I cannot allow the SAHPC (SA Health Professions Council) to compel me to lie on death certificates simply so that government can pretend that the Aids pandemic is an epidemic," Wagner said.
He believed his hearing could be a turning point for South Africa and that death certificates offered the most accurate data to compile Aids statistics.
23/11/2006 11:14 - (SA)
http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/Aids_Focus/0,9294,2-7-659_2034597,00.html
Pretoria - A former state pathologist will face a disciplinary hearing for writing Aids as the cause of death on a woman's death certificate, labour union Solidarity said on Wednesday.
"The hearing can be a watershed for South Africa in view of the fact Aids cannot at present be entered on a death certificate as the cause of death", the union's Dirk Hermann said.
Leon Wagner is a former chief pathologist of the Free State who is currently in private practice. His disciplinary hearing will take place in Bloemfontein on Thursday.
"If he is exonerated and it is found that doctors may in future indicate Aids as the real cause of death on certificates, it would have tremendous consequences for the statistical documentation of this pandemic," Hermann said.
Currently doctors cannot indicate Aids as the cause of death.
Hermann said the hearing could have a huge impact on the insurance industry as most insurance companies did not pay out if a client died of Aids.
If Aids could be entered as the cause of death, South Africa would for the first time be able to measure the extent of mortality related to the disease.
"We would very much like to see this happening," Hermann said.
At the preliminary hearings Wagner said he had been told that the case against him was not a legal one, but a "moral issue about which the government is sensitive".
"I cannot allow the SAHPC (SA Health Professions Council) to compel me to lie on death certificates simply so that government can pretend that the Aids pandemic is an epidemic," Wagner said.
He believed his hearing could be a turning point for South Africa and that death certificates offered the most accurate data to compile Aids statistics.
