Bay Area Reporter - October 19, 2000
S. Predrag

In a letter addressed to a South African newspaper, the Mail & Guardian, Rasnick said, "On national or international television I will be treated with purified, infectious HIV. At the same time Costa Gazi will begin a lifetime course of the three-drug cocktail known as HAART [highly active antiretroviral therapy]."

"The experiment is simple: we will see who comes down with AIDS-defining diseases and who lives longer," wrote Rasnick, who is a member of South African President Thabo Mbeki's AIDS advisory panel.

It is hard to believe that a scientist could make such a suggestion, but it is evident that the AIDS dissidents have gone on the offensive, particularly in Africa where Mbeki has given them such a public platform. Gazi, who had spent more than two decades working in Britain's public health system during South Africa's apartheid years, described Rasnick's challenge as absurd.

This medical doctor, known for buying Nevirapine privately to administer to HIV-positive pregnant women, said that it would be unethical to expect anyone to expose themselves to such a life-threatening procedure.

"It has been known for over 15 years that persons infected with HIV will undoubtedly develop AIDS and die of AIDS-related diseases - unless of course they have access to anti-retroviral therapy such as HAART," explained Gazi.

He reminded Rasnick that, "In countries where such therapy is available, AIDS no longer has lethal consequences, but has joined the ranks of chronic diseases which require regular medication."

Gazi claims that Rasnick's challenge was based "on a series of false premises. It is an astonishing gesture that would prove nothing whatsoever if it had to be carried out.

"It would be stupid for me to take a drug that I do not need," said Gazi. He added that, "However, it would be very sensible for him [Rasnick] to inject himself with a virus that he has been incessantly claiming is an innocent bystander and does not cause AIDS."

Gazi, who is also a member of Mbeki's AIDS advisory panel, admitted that anti-retrovirals have toxic side effects, but said that, "They are no different in that regard from an antibiotic."

He stressed that HIV is a very dangerous infection, while anti-retrovirals are the only available means to stop the spread of AIDS at the moment. Gazi insisted that his support for the use of AZT was based on "mountains of evidence" that the drugs significantly reduce the chances of an HIV-positive mother passing the virus on to her baby. He said that his intention was "not to promote such drugs, but to save lives."

This mainstream AIDS scientist recently compared Mbeki's government's refusal to provide anti-retroviral drugs to pregnant women as tantamount to sanctioning "the genocide of babies."

"It's not deliberate genocide, but the effect of what he is doing is precisely that," said Gazi. According to this doctor, it seems that the South African government would prefer that babies of HIV-positive mothers are born infected with the virus so that they die quickly and relieve the state of the burden of taking care of them after their mothers die. Gazi, who is a member of the Panafricanist Congress of Azania (PAC), a radical black organization, has called on Mbeki to scrap his plan of spending more than $4 billion U.S. on war planes, submarines, and other weapons and, instead, to help the 4.2 million HIV-positive people in South Africa.

Interestingly, Mbeki has reportedly said he will refrain from further public comment on AIDS and HIV, after admitting that he has created confusion in South Africa (see story, page TK).

But, according to the South African weekly, the Sunday Times, "Mbeki did not back down on his controversial stance à and again questioned the orthodox scientific view that HIV is the cause of AIDS and sided with dissidents who claim other factors, including poverty and malnutrition, play an important role."

However, Mbeki's withdrawal from the scientific debate on HIV/AIDS did not impress his critics, particularly the Treatment Action Campaign who accused the president of acting childish and confused.

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