AIDSTruth.org

Bob Ostertag writes on the Huffington Post on the parallels between climate change denialism and AIDS denialism:

As with climate change denialists, AIDS denialists piece together their arguments from misinterpretations of valid scientific papers, from the comments of respected scientists venturing out of their specialty and writing in non-peer reviewed journals, and the political support of conservative institutions. And again, as with climate change denialism, the whole package gets its momentum and false air of rigor from being endlessly circulated on the Internet.

Internet company Google has said that advertisements supplied by its AdSense service to websites across the country should not have included ones that claim to "cure" HIV. – Pinknews.co.uk

Today a South African court handed down a landmark judgment in a case initiated by Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and the South African Medical Association (SAMA) against Matthias Rath and the Government of South Africa.

This judgment unequivocally establishes the duty of the state to enforce the scientific governance of medicines as defined in the country's Medicines Act. The case demonstrated how the South African Minister of Health wilfully obstructed the rule of law and promoted pseudoscience, resulting in the unnecessary deaths of many people.

The judgment is effectively a stern warning to all purveyors of untested and unregistered medicines, especially those selling so-called “cures” for HIV/AIDS. (AIDSTruth has reported on a number of such cases, including the Minister of Health's support for the untested "Ubhejane" treatment.)

• Read a summary of the judgment and the TAC's statement here.
• Read the full judgment here.
• Read background on the case.

Here is some media coverage of the court victory:

• BBC – S Africa bans Aids vitamin trials
• Reuters – South African court bans AIDS vitamin trials
• IRIN PlusNews – TAC prevails over Rath
• Health-e – It's all over for Rath
• Health24.com – Fire Manto over Rath: TAC
• The Times – TAC calls for Manto’s head over Rath

The World Health Organisation and UNAIDS issued this statement on 12 June.

Correction to AIDS story in Independent article 8 June 2008

We wish to clarify misinterpretations concerning WHO and UNAIDS positions on the status of the AIDS epidemic in recent media articles. The story in the Independent on Sunday titled: “Threat of world AIDS pandemic among heterosexuals is over, report admits” contained a few seriously misleading statements that have led to inferences and conclusions that bear no relation to the highly complex realities of the HIV epidemic.

First and foremost, the global HIV epidemic is by no means over. At the end of 2007, an estimated 33.2 million people were living with HIV. Some 2.5 million people became newly infected that year, and 2.1 million died of AIDS. AIDS remains the leading cause of death in Africa.

The International AIDS Society has published a list of fake AIDS "cures" on their website. While there are unfortunately more "cures" that could be added to this list, it is important that the IAS as the representative body of HIV/AIDS scientists has taken a strong stand against this dangerous and exploitative form of pseudoscience.

In the article Unproven AIDS "cures" they say:

The IAS urges its worldwide membership to hold their governments to account for unproven claims of AIDS cures. We advise health care workers and policy makers throughout the world to continue to implement ARV treatment programmes for all who need them, and to clarify the proven dangers of stopping ARVs, including the risk of disease progression and the development of drug resistance.

The South African Sunday Times newspaper ran an exposé today about a meeting of quacks in the port city of Durban, the major city in the epicentre of SA's HIV epidemic. The meeting was attended by the provincial health minister for KwaZulu-Natal Peggy Nkonyeni and addressed by the national Minister of Health, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang.

The Sunday Times reports:

The KwaZulu-Natal Health Department is actively promoting Aids denialists and quack Aids cures — with the blessing of Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang. Last Friday, the department hosted an “information workshop on HIV treatment” at a Durban hotel, where speakers condemned antiretroviral drugs and called for traditional medicine to be promoted instead. The meeting was opened by the KwaZulu-Natal Health MEC Peggy Nkonyeni. Tshabalala-Msimang delivered the keynote address. Read full story.

Also see the editorial in the same newspaper Manto, people are dying.

Peggy Nkonyeni, provincial Minister of Health in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal, the province that accounts for a quarter of HIV cases in that country, has been in the news recently for a denialist-inspired crusade against her own doctors. Earlier this year, a doctor at the rural Manguzi hospital was threatened withbdisciplinary action for providing two drugs to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV, allegedly in contravention of national guidelines (the dual therapy protocol is standard, recommended by the WHO and superior to the Nevirapine-only protocol used until recently in South Africa). After threatening a doctor for not unnecessarily letting infants be infected, she made the following extraordinary statement:

AZT is toxic and must be controlled. Dual therapy has not been agreed upon. ... We have a problem with doctors who work in rural areas. They do not care about people. It is all about profit and not about caring for people.

It seems others share our interpretation of RA's "victory". See the Housing Works AIDS Issues Update story. Money quote:

D.C. Fights Back member and Whitman-Walker client Mark Fischer says the only time he got an opportunistic infection was when he stopped taking his meds. "These aren't whistleblowers. They're divergent thinkers who are 21st century snake oil salesmen. And especially in D.C., where there are so many reasons why people don't get treatment, we don't need this," Fischer said.

AIDSTruth does not normally welcome the publication of any article in a mainstream magazine that features Peter Duesberg or any other AIDS denialist. Any publicity for AIDS denialists and their scientifically rejected views could increase the chances that vulnerable individuals will die, either by believing that HIV is harmless or that ARVs cause AIDS. That AIDS denialism kills is unquestionable (see, for example, our pages on denialism and politics as well as about denialists who have died).

The recent article in Discover Magazine (Peter's Principles, by Jeanne Lenzer) is an exception, however, so we are pleased to post it on AIDSTruth. There is much in the article with which we do not agree - it does not make it clear enough that Duesberg and his fellow denialists are simply wrong on all aspects of the science that they attempt to promote. However, the article confirms what we have been saying on AIDSTruth:

Apparently the latest issue of Discover Magazine contains a spread featuring Peter Duesberg. For more on why Duesberg should not be taken seriously, see our page on who the denialists are.

Early reactions from scientific bloggers reveal disgust: see Denailism blog and ERV.