Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said on Thursday that she does not remember endorsing Aids dissident Matthias Rath’s Dr Rath Health Foundation — but said that the foundation’s focus on good nutrition in fighting the disease is complementary to the government’s programme to fight Aids.
Addressing a media briefing in Pretoria — beamed to Parliament in Cape Town — the minister was asked why she endorsed Rath and whether this did not fly in the face of plans to roll out state-sponsored anti-retroviral treatment to HIV patients.
She repeated a number of times: “I don’t remember saying I endorse the Matthias Rath foundation … but if he is providing nutrients [to fight Aids] it is not in contradiction to the comprehensive plan [the government plan to fight Aids].”
She then went on to say that she will not stop alerting members of the public to the “side effects” of anti-retroviral drug therapy.
Asked if she is pleased about the roll-out to 42Â 000 Aids patients countrywide, she said: “I am not happy.”
She said she does not know where the figure came from, as she believes it is 28Â 000, but even then there is no detail about how many people fall into each of the 52 medical districts, how many have suffered side effects, “or how many have voluntarily dropped out [of the anti-retroviral programme] or died”.
Tshabalala-Msimang said if one is talking about side effects, she does not know how this can be linked to the Rath foundation.
“I don’t know if there is a link between the two [issues].”
Tshabalala-Msimang said she will continue to talk out about the side effects of all medicines and emphasise good nutrition, including olive oil and the importance of raw garlic, as well as the “skin of the lemon”. She added that the latter helps to make one’s face and body “beautiful”.
When asked if there have been empirical studies of the goodness of these foods in fighting disease, she referred journalists to the African National Congress official website, where she said she had written a column on the wonders of good food.
Earlier this week, former education minister Kader Asmal was quoted in a Cape Town newspaper as slamming Rath’s “tendentious and scurrilous” attack on the Treatment Action Campaign. Rath — described as a vitamin dealer — is involved in a legal tussle with the campaign.
The campaign, led by Zachie Achmat, says Rath has “for several months” been running advertisements in community newspapers, handing out flyers and putting up posters that accuse the campaign of receiving funding from drug companies — to promote the use of anti-retrovirals.
Rath’s foundation claims that vitamins can stop the progression of Aids. — I-Net Bridge