[Ip-health] Wall Street Journal: AIDS Scientists Call for Resignation Of South Africa's Health Minister

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115749122365854275.html

AIDS Scientists Call for Resignation
Of South Africa's Health Minister

By *MARILYN CHASE*
September 5, 2006 9:52 p.m.

International AIDS scientists, including an American Nobel laureate,
sent a letter Tuesday to South African President Thabo Mbeki, protesting
the government's unconventional stand on origins of AIDS, and calling
for the removal of his health minister who supports a dietary regimen
against the viral epidemic.

One of the most severely-stricken countries on earth, South Africa has
5.5 million people living with HIV, or 18.8% of its adult population,
according to the United Nations Joint Program on HIV/AIDS.

Challenging the longstanding scientific consensus that AIDS is caused by
infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), Mr. Mbeki's
government has expressed skepticism, and his Health Minister Manto
Tshabalala-Msimang recommends a diet of potato, lemon and garlic.

Years of public protest and private diplomacy aimed at reversing this
policy have softened but not ended its stand. The controversy was
reignited at the International AIDS Conference in Toronto last month,
where South Africa's exhibit defiantly displayed the nutritional regimen.

Tuesday's letter was signed by 65 scientists from a dozen countries
including Harvard University AIDS researcher Daniel Kuritzkes and Nobel
Prize-winner David Baltimore of the California Institute of Technology.

While praising South African scientists and doctors for working to
alleviate the suffering caused by AIDS, the letter charged that the
minister's "pseudo-scientific" views had undermined those efforts. The
letter added a commendable government plan to treat 380,000 people with
drugs had so far reached fewer than half the target group.

One of the co-organizers of the letter, AIDS researcher John P. Moore of
Cornell University's Weill College of Medicine in New York City, said
there is "simply no scientific rationale" for touting food in lieu of drugs.

"To promote alternative medicines as AIDS cures in South Africa is to
kill people," he added, "and it's time for AIDS scientists to stand up
against this kind of quackery."

Reached by phone Tuesday evening in Cape Town, the presidential press
secretary Mukoni Ratshitanga said that Mr. Mbeki was hosting a visit by
Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin, and had no response to the
letter, which he had not yet seen.

Late Tuesday evening, Charity Bhengu, a spokeswoman for the health
minister, added she hadn't yet seen the letter either.

--William Echikson contributed to this article.


*Write to* Marilyn Chase at marilyn.chase@wsj.com
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