Page 89 - A Widening Idea of Health and Health Research - The South African Medical Research Council from Creation to COVID

A Widening Idea of Health: The SAMRC from Creation to Covid

initiative was that the 2014 Regulations on the Registration of Births and Deaths
introduced a revised death certificate, but one which still did not give researchers
unimpeded access to the stated cause of death which they wanted.
Yet, even with these deficiencies, the revamping of the registration of deaths in
South Africa by BODRU was decisive and of enormous practical significance in the
midst of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, not least because this enabled it to identify the
start of a turnabout in the country’s hitherto falling life expectancy, largely thanks
to the official adoption of ARVT in 2003. As a later president of the MRC made
130
clear in commending BODRU for its pivotal contribution in this respect, which led

The proof of the biscuit is in the eating. Left to right: Dr Tony Mbewu (the MRC’s
executive director of research), Dr Spinnie Benadé (programme leader of the MRC’s
National Research Programme for Nutritional Intervention) and Mr Tan Sri Datuk
(chairman of the JC Chang Group, the owner of Global Palm Products) trying a carotino
nutritional biscuit developed by the MRC in 1999. The biscuit used red palm oil to prevent
micronutrient deficiencies.

82