The Medical Research Council Presentation to the Portfolio Committee on Science and Technology March 16,

VISION Building a healthy nation through research MISSION To improve the nation’s health status and quality of life through relevant and excellent health research aimed at promoting equity and development

MRC BUILDING A HEALTHY NATION THROUGH RESEARCH MRC Cape Town MRC Durban MRC Pretoria A Statutory Council – one of 9 Science Councils Established by Act of Parliament 9% of Science Vote Turnover ~R350 million (60% baseline) Staff Intra- and Extra-mural Research Units

Board President Executive Management Committee Environment and Development Alcohol and Drug Abuse Research Unit Exercise Science and Sports Medicine Research Unit Health and Development Research Group Health Promotion Research and Development Group Woman and Child Health Gender and Health Research Unit Maternal and Infant Health Care Strategies Research Unit Mineral Metabolism Research Unit Nutritional Intervention Research Unit Infection and Immunity HIV and AIDS Research Lead Programme Clinical and Biomedical Tuberculosis Research Unit Diarrhoeal Pathogens Research Unit Genital Ulcer Disease Research Unit HIV Prevention and Vaccine Research Unit South African AIDS Vaccine Initiative Immunology of Infectious Disease Research Unit Inflammation and Immunity Research Unit Malaria Research Lead Programme Operational and Policy Tuberculosis Research Group Pneumococcal and Meningeal Pathogens Research Unit South African Traditional Medicines Research Unit Tuberculosis Research Lead Programme Non Communicable Disease Anxiety and Stress Disorders Research Unit Cancer Epidemiology Research Group Chronic Diseases of Lifestyle Research Unit Crime, Violence and Injury Lead Programme Diabetes Research Lead Programme Interuniversity Cape Heart Research Group Medical Imaging Research Unit PROMEC Unit Health Systems and Policy Burden of Disease Research Unit Biostatistics Unit Cochrane Centre Health Policy Research Group Health Systems Research Unit National Telemedicine Lead Programme Molecules to Disease Bioinformatics Capacity Development Research Unit Bone Research Unit Centre for Molecular and Cellular Biology Human Genetics Research Unit Human Genomic Diversity and Disease Research Unit Liver Research Centre Molecular Hepatology Research Unit Molecular Mycobacteriology Research Unit Oesophageal Cancer Research Group SA MRC/British MRC Receptor Biology Research Group Indigenous Knowledge Systems Research Lead Programme

Province House TypePiped water inside % Without toilet % Reportin g hunger % % traditional % shack Eastern Cape Free State Gauteng Kwa-Zulu Natal Mpumalanga Northern Cape Northern Northern West Western Cape South Africa Source: StatsSA 1999 October Household Survey Variations in household living conditions by province, 1999

HIV prevalence levels by sex and age group in 2004

Note : RPR trends by age are shown from 1998 when these became available

CauseDeathsPercentage Tuberculosis Influenza and pneumonia Other forms of heart disease Stroke Hypertensive heart disease Chronic bronchitis General Symptoms and Signs Ischaemic heart disease Resp and cardiac in perinatal period Diabetes mellitus HIV disease TOTAL Number of associated deaths for the ten leading reported natural causes of death in 2001 Source: Statistics South Africa 2005

CauseDeathsPercentage HIV/AIDS Ischaemic heart disease Homicide/violence Stroke Tuberculosis Lower respiratory infections Road traffic accidents Diarrhoeal diseases Hypertensive heart disease Diabetes mellitus % 5.9% 5.8% 5.3% 4.0% 3.3% 2.9% 2.6% 2.4% Top 10 causes of death, South Africa 2000 National Burden of Disease Study, Total deaths Source: Bradshaw et al., 2003

Estimated population pyramid, 2004 MRCBurden of Disease Research Unit