look out
by Ursula Arens
In 1985 average life expectancy in South Africa, un-
der the apartheid government, was 61.8 years. Today,
some 20 years later, average life expectancy is ten
years shorter: 50.7 years.
These shocking statistics show not the health benefits
of undemocratic government, but rather the effects of
the extreme health ravages brought to the population
by the severe challenge of AIDS. Antenatal screening in
the southern district Kwazulu Natal report HIV positives for
one in four women tested, and predictions nationally are
that by 2011, deaths from AIDS will exceed deaths from
all other causes combined.
So it may seem a paradox, speaking as a dietitian, that
a health minister with an interest in nutrition, is not a good
thing. Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has been given the
nickname ‘Dr Beetroot’ for her public promotion of healthy
diet including beets, garlic, lemons, olive oil and African
potatoes, for people who are HIV positive. Her support
for dietary treatments and vitamin supplements has been
described by the UN envoy to Africa as a promotion of the
‘lunatic fringe’. But after years of public and private bicker-
ing, the legislators have finally spoken, to prohibit the further
promotion of vitamin therapies for the treatment of AIDS in
South Africa.
In June 2008 the High Court in Cape Town issued an order
banning two doctors from carrying out clinical trials using
vitamins/micronutrients in HIV-positive people, or from pub-
lished advertisements for such therapies. The long drawn-
out legal case was brought by the South African Medical
Association (SAMA) and the lobby group Treatment Action
glutenfreedom.info
Campaign (TAC), but it is not over yet; a 2,000 page affida-
vit, filed a year late, needs to be digested by legal teams
before everyone is back in court after the summer.
Dr Matthias Rath, a German physician based in South
An independent listing
Africa, set up the Rath Foundation to promote ‘science-
based natural health’. In practice, this has been the promo-
of gluten-free
tion of high-dose proprietary vitamin and mineral products
with claims about benefits to health in conditions of immune
deficiencies. The crux of the complaints against Dr Rath and
products, resources
those in his employ is not due to any proven harmful effects
of taking supplements, but rather in the communications
and suppliers
that they had possible potent effects on the progression of
disease in those who were HIV positive. The displacement of
established anti-retroviral AIDS treatments with the use of vi-
tamin supplements result in harm, and the TAC charged the
government with a lack of enthusiasm for investigating the
promotion of vitamin therapies as medicines, and so failing
in statutory duties to protect the health of the public.
The successful challenge to the unethical promotion of
vitamins among the desperate poor is a welcome outcome
of legal assessment, and a public reminder that big claims
for vitamins should be subject to the same legal scrutiny as
big claims for vans or vacuum cleaners.
Information sources:
www.46664.com
www.sairr.org.za
www.dr-rath-foundation.org
www.int.iol.co.za
www.tac.org.za
NHDmag.com Aug/Sep ‘08 - issue 37 27
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