More than 60 HIV scientists, including a Nobel Peace Prize winner and leading academics, have called for the immediate removal of Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, the Treatment Action Campaign said on Wednesday.
In a letter to President Thabo Mbeki, a total of 81 signatories said the minister’s health policies were ineffective and immoral.
”We therefore call for the immediate removal of Dr Tshabalala-Msimang as Minister of Health, and for an end to the disastrous, pseudo-scientific policies that have characterised the South African government’s response to HIV/Aids,” said members of the global scientific community.
According to the letter it was an embarrasment to the South African government to have a health minister who ”now has no international respect”.
The list of signatories included leading academics from institutions such as Harvard University, and others specialising in HIV/Aids research, microbiology, haemotology, immunology, molecular and cell biology.
Winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace, David Baltimore, as well as Robert Gallo — the developer of the first HIV blood test and co-discoverer of HIV as the cause of Aids — put their names to the letter.
In the letter, dated September 4, the signatories state that anti-retrovirals are the only medication currently available that alleviate the consequences of HIV infection.
”The evidence supporting these statements is overwhelming and beyond dispute.”
Tshabalala-Msimang came under fire at the International Aids Conference in Toronto last month for her controversial promotion of the use of garlic and beetroot in fighting HIV/Aids. The South African exhibition openly displaying these items was also a point of contention at the conference.
In the letter the academics echo the words of Stephen Lewis, United Nations envoy on Aids in Africa, that South Africa’s response to Aids was ”obtuse, dilatory and negligent”.
To the view that good nutrition was an alternative treatment to HIV infection, the scientists said: ”There is no scientific evidence to support such views. Good nutrition is important for all people, including people with HIV, but garlic, lemons and potatoes are not alternatives to effective medications to treat a specific viral infection and its consequences on the human immune system.”
South Africa has over five million people infected with the HI virus and over 500 000 people needing ARV treatment who don’t have access to the medicines.
The letter to Mbeki expressed concern on the amount of unproven remedies being marketed in South Africa, some with the support of the health minister.
”Slick marketing practices cause people not to take proven medications, or at best to waste money on false hopes. We condemn all those who profit from this type of quackery, at the expense of the sick and dying,” it reads.
The letter also supported the views of Mark Wainberg — chairperson of the conference — who said in his closing address that he was no longer prepared to take a back seat as a scientist ”and not express my personal concern that this situation seems to have continued unabated”.
The health department’s operational plan for comprehensive HIV and Aids care was commended in the letter.
However, it read that it was unfortunate many people not receiving treatment were dying unneccessarily.
Tshabalala-Msimang has stood her ground despite a barrage of calls from politicians and activists that she resign. Mbeki has also said he will not fire his health minister. – Sapa
On the net
Read the letter.