News
HST Collects relevant news from a variety of sources, for your convenience. Select a story from below, or use our search feature to find stories of interest.

Africa has worlds most road deaths
WHO report
2004-05-07

JOHANNESBURG A new review of the World Health Organisation report on road accident deaths released earlier this month shows that South Africa has contributed to Africa having the highest rate of road accident deaths in the world.

It says the continent has the worlds highest road traffic mortality rate of 28,3 per 100 000 population. It is followed by the low- and middle-income countries of the Eastern Mediterranean region, which has a 26,4 per 100 000 death rate, followed by South East Asia (18,6) and the Americas (16,2).The department of transport notes that the South African average mortality rate of 26,9 is only a few percentage points below the continental average.These observations illustrate the fact that low- and middle-income countries carry most of the burden of the worlds road traffic injuries, the report said.The report says that road accident deaths are expected to gradually drop in high-income countries of the world, but for low-income and middle-income countries are projected to escalate over the next 20 years and beyond.

The total annual costs of road crashes to low-income and middle-income countries are estimated at about US65billion (about R440billion), exceeding the total annual amount received in development assistance. This is particularly costly to countries that are trying to build their economies and struggling with matters of development, it adds.

KwaZulu-Natal, the province with the highest number of deaths on its roads annually, is said to incur a cost equivalent to five percent of Gross National Product (GNP). The cost of road traffic collisions in South Africa for 2000 were estimated at approximately R13,8billion. Most road deaths in low-to-middle income countries are among pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists, the report shows.

THE WHO ESTIMATES THAT BETWEEN 20 AND 50MILLION PEOPLE ARE DISABLED EACH YEAR AS A RESULT OF ROAD ACCIDENTS AND THAT AN ESTIMATED 1,2MILLION DIE FROM ACCIDENTS ANNUALLY. ( SOURCE: SIQALANE TAHO, THIS DAY, 26 APRIL 2004)

Link //
World Report on Road Traffic Injury Prevention,  April 7, 2004
DOWNLOAD SUMMARY (2.5MB) 
http://www.who.int/world-health-day/2004/in

Keywords	This Item is associated with the Following Keywords: .
You Can Comment on this Item, or View other people's Comments
Easy Print  Email to a friend

	Related News
	Road crashes top global causes of fatal injuries (2003-05-15) HIV causes 1 in 3 deaths in Gauteng (2005-05-18) Big rise in child mortality rate in SA (2004-11-04) Only 4X4s and motorbikes get to Eastern Cape rural health centres (2000-05-29) OPINION: Economic Consequences of HIV/AIDS (2002-05-03)

	Related Publications
	Progress on Global Access to HIV Antiretroviral Therapy - An update on '3 by 5' (2005-07-04) 3 by 5 Progress Report (2005-01-26) Providing Antiretroviral Treatment in Southern Africa - A Literature Review (2004-05-14) The Demographic Impact of HIV/AIDS in South Africa - National Indicators for 2004 (2005-01-27) The impact of HIV/AIDS on adult mortality in South Africa (2001-10-19)

	Related Health Statistics
	Road accident fatalities per 100 000 population (2004-10-08) Perinatal mortality rate (deaths <8 days old per 1 000 total births) (0000-00-00) Cure rate (new Sm+ cases) (2005-05-25) Per capita income (Rands) (0000-00-00) Human development index (2004-02-09)

	Related Events
	Health systems financing in low-income African and Asian countries (France) (2000-11-23) Women's Health - Cervical Cancer Awareness Month (2007-09-01) 6th Commonwealth Congress on Diarrhoea and Malnutrition (2003-05-19) UWC Summer School 2001 (2001-01-15) Invitation to the launch of The Cholera Outbreak report (2002-03-25)

	Related links
	World Income Inequality Database World AIDS Day Global Health Watch The World Medical Association, Inc German Foundation for World Population English Website

	Related Content
	District Health Barometer - Some examples of systems and research (2005-01-20) ISDS Site: Alfred Nzo District (2004-05-10) HST Conference 2007: Accommodation (2007-08-31) District Health and Local Government (2004-04-07) ISDS Site: uMkhanyakude District Municipality (2004-05-10)