Belinda Beresford
The watchdog for doctors in South Africa has refused to state publicly that HIV causes Aids but invited a leading Aids dissident to address a workshop on human rights and HIV this week.
Professor Sam Mhlongo, head of the Department of Family Medicine at Medunsa, is one of the most prominent South Africans to publicly question the link between HIV and Aids. This stance has drawn much criticism from other medical professionals because of his role in training doctors.
Mhlongo was the first panel speaker on Thursday at a seminal meeting of the Health Professions Council (HPC), the medical industry’s statutory watchdog. The meeting was called to produce a policy on how doctors should respond to patients with HIV. The HPC, which registers all doctors in South Africa, polices unethical or below-standard behaviour.
HPC registrar Boyce Mkhize said that inviting Mhlongo was a freedom of speech issue in a democratic society. Mhlongo’s views would need to be tested and tried against those of orthodox Aids experts, Mkhize said. But he added that there was to be no formal debate on the issue.
At the workshop’s outset, controversy stirred. In his opening speech, HPC acting president Thanyani Mariba said there was still confusion on the issue of HIV and Aids, with scientists remaining at loggerheads.
Mkhize said the HPC had “gone beyond the stage of whether HIV causes Aids” and needed to address how its members could responsibly cope with the large numbers of dying people they were seeing as a result. “I don’t think it would aid our cause to enter into the fray of the debate and say whether HIV causes Aids.”
This position is in stark contrast to other medical groupings. The College of Medicine, which represents about 7 000 specialists and 2 000 GPs holds “absolutely” to the link between the virus and the increasing numbers of deaths of those it infects.
President-elect Professor Ralph Kirsh, who is head of the department of medicine at UCT, says: “Every responsible group of medical people in the country, including the [Medical Research Council], believes that HIV causes Aids. There is no doubt whatsoever. Anyone who does doubt this either is unable to read the literature or is working on some agenda”.
Acknowledging individuals’ right to free speech, Kirsh nonetheless says it would be highly irresponsible for anyone to say that HIV does not cause Aids if it could lead people to take fewer precautions.
“Aids is not a quick and painless death. It is long drawn-out and painful, not just for the patient but also for their family and community.”