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June 29, 2005
The Wrath of Rath
Mathias Rath, vitamin entrepeneur and AIDS-treatment opponent is on the march.
Rath is preying upon Africa's poor and weak by selling them sham vitamins to "cure" AIDS and telling them not to take antiretrovrial drugs.
Worse, he has the backing of the South African health minister, who heads South Africa's antiretroviral dispensing program.
But Rath has his opponents, primary among them the Treatment Action Coalition, a local HIV/AIDS advocacy group. The TAC was formed in the late 90s, when the South African government was in the throes of AIDS denialism and refused to dispense AIDS drugs to the public. The TAC lobbies for the tolerance and accceptance of people with HIV and for better medical care and drugs treatments for those with AIDS. Their work has earned them a nomination for a Nobel Peace Prize.
These are not especially radical positions. In the United States, these are commonly accepted. But in South Africa, they are radical.
Far from embracing the TAC's stance, the ANC continues to follow the Rath line. The ANC Youth League has leafleted on behalf of the Rath Foundation in Khayelitsha, an impovrished slum outside Cape Town. The leaflets urge residents to skip the ARVs (which Rath claims are poisonous) and and to take his vitamins which can "control" and "reverse" AIDS instead.
The TAC, true to its mission, is now seeking Rath's arrest. You can bet the health minister's friends won't be signing the warrant.
The TAC is the sort of organization our AIDS dollars needs to be supporting. In the country with more HIV infections than any other, the TAC is the foremost advocacy group on HIV/AIDS issues.
Democrats, we must do more to help the TAC.
Posted by James Fichter at June 29, 2005 10:30 AM
