The Department of Health says it has laid criminal complaints with the police following a probe of the activities of vitamin salesperson Matthias Rath and his Rath Foundation.
The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) on Monday released copies of a letter it received from the department’s law enforcement section saying investigations were ”at an advanced stage”.
The TAC and the South African Medical Association in June last year won a high court ruling interdicting Rath from conducting unauthorised clinical trials, and from promoting his Vitacell, which he touted as an alternative to antiretroviral drugs for people with HIV/Aids.
TAC spokesperson Nathan Geffen told a media briefing in Cape Town on Monday that the TAC had discovered last year that the South African National Civics Organisation was still distributing Rath’s products from a facility in Durban.
A member had seen a bin in which patients had apparently thrown away their ARVs with the intention of using Rath’s products.
Both the TAC and the Southern African HIV Clinicians Society had complained to the department.
The TAC had in reply received a letter from the director of the department’s law enforcement section, Joey Gouws, which said that following the court order the department had embarked on its own probe of Rath.
”The said investigations are at an advanced stage and we have had successes in this regard,” she said.
”On the strength of our investigations, criminal cases have been opened by the department for the alleged contravention of the provisions of the Medicines and Related Substances Act … and are being investigated by the South African Police Services [SAPS] in Durban.
”Our investigations continue parallel to the SAPS investigation and we are hoping for more success.”
Gouws confirmed to Sapa that her section had sent a letter along those lines to the TAC.
Geffen said the TAC had been impressed by the cooperation it received from department officials in the matter.
”I think it’s symptomatic of a new relationship between government and civil society with regard to health,” he said.
The TAC hoped a warrant of arrest would soon be issued for Rath.
”While it is unlikely it will ever be executed because Rath has left the country, it will be important symbolically to close this tragic affair, which has directly cost the lives of several of Rath’s patients and indirectly cost the lives of countless others who were confused by [his] false messages,” he said.
Geffen also said the period for Rath to lodge an appeal against the court ruling had expired, which meant the order stood unchallenged.
”Our lawyers have therefore begun the process of redeeming their considerable costs from Rath,” he said. — Sapa