Bay Area Reporter - April 12, 2001
S. Predrag

The 134-page document failed to resolve any of the key controversies that led to the formation of the panel more than a year ago. Among them, the most important controversy of all: does HIV cause AIDS?

The presidential panel on AIDS consisted of 33 international and local scientists, as well as other experts - divided into two camps: those who believe that HIV causes AIDS and those who fiercely dispute that contention.

The panelists met on two occasions in Pretoria in May and July of last year, in order to address the following questions:

o What causes the immune deficiency that leads to death from AIDS? o What is the most efficient response to the cause(s)?

o Why is AIDS heterosexually transmitted in sub-Saharan Africa, while it is largely homosexually transmitted in the Western world?

Addressing journalists at a press conference held on April 4 in Cape Town, Dr. Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, the South African minister of health, admitted that the panelists were sharply divided on many questions. Still, she added that, "It was not assumed at the start of the exercise that the objective was to achieve consensus."

The main stumbling block is that the mainstream scientists are insisting that massive, improved awareness campaigns, including the widespread use of condoms, as well as better blood screening and the use of antiretrovirals, can help the fight against the spread of AIDS.

On the other side, the dissident scientist members claim that better nourishment, including therapy with Chinese cucumbers, yoga, and music - and not antiretrovirals - can stop HIV-infected people from dying.

While the division among the panelists as to the cause of AIDS was fundamental, according to Tshabalala-Msimang, "Certain commonly held views did emerge on the importance of various programmatic interventions." In particular, she said, "The significant impact of developmental issues - issues such as poverty, literacy, gender relations, nutrition, sanitation - was taken into account and acknowledged in a much more far-reaching way than hitherto."

As for the use of antiretrovirals, Tshabalala-Msimang admitted that, "Views on this issue were obviously sharply divergent."

Panelists who deny a causal link between HIV and AIDS regard the use of antiretrovirals as "totally unjustifiable." However, mainstream scientists believe that antiretrovirals have positive effects, particularly when it comes to the prevention of mother-to-child transmissions of HIV.

The South African health minister praised the panelists for their work, insisting that, "The global search for answers to the many complex questions will continue and, we believe, it has been enriched and promoted by the research projects defined through the process of debate in this particular panel."

Tshabalala-Msimang, whose president has been openly linked with the AIDS dissidents and questions the cause of AIDS, concluded that, "The debates of the panel have not provided grounds for [the] government to depart from its current approach to the HIV/AIDS problem." She added that their approach remains rooted in the premise that HIV causes AIDS.

The interim report has already provoked sharp criticism. Some feel that it was an expensive exercise in futility. Others claim that it is already harming the fight against AIDS in South Africa.

"In a sense, what we have done with this long and very expensive debate is put back a lot of years' work, especially among young people," said Dr. Ashraf Grimwood, chair of the National Council on AIDS. He characterized the panel report's divisions on the link between HIV and AIDS as "a very serious situation."

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