Overall mortality in Botswana has continued rising since the 1990s despite continued
growth in the health sector and most other sectors of the economy. Researchers and policy
makers have generally blamed the reversal of the remarkable health gains during the 1970s
and 1980s on HIV/AIDS, which was first discovered in Botswana in 1985. Understandably,
the health gains continued throughout the 1980s, and started to decline only after AIDS
emerged as a significant contributor to mortality, and then to a major cause by 1993. It is
however, not clear as to whether the rising mortality can be blamed solely on HIV/AIDS or
whether the concentration of resources on the fight against HIV/AIDS might have led to a
neglect of other serious causes of mortality. The purpose of this paper is to study the
contribution of AIDS and related causes of death to the total mortality in Botswana from
1990 - 2003. Using Preston models, the analysis found that AIDS contribute to about 4.3%
of all deaths (4.29% for males and 4.37% for females) and about 5.8% and 5.9% for males
and females respectively for institutional deaths. The analysis reveals that AIDS accounts
for about 4% of the total deaths among both males and females from all causes and about
6% among the intuitional deaths between 1991 and 2003. When the infants are excluded,
AIDS accounts for 7% and 9% among the males and females respectively in the
institutional death.