Inter Press Service - April 27, 2000
Farah Khan

In the latest volley the 16 000 doctors, who are members of the SA Medical Association (Sama), said the president's views were "dangerous and its propagation may lead to cases of Aids which might otherwise have been prevented".

The organisation fears that by giving credibility to the view that the HIV virus does not cause Aids, prevention programmes will be neutered.

"In the absence of an effective vaccine, the prevention of Aids will continue to rely heavily on the practice of safe sex and the avoidance of contaminated needles," the organisation said in a statement this week.

The government's posturing on Aids and aspects of its policy have also been criticised by the president of the Medical Research Council, William Makgoba, World Bank president-designate Mamphele Ramphela and Judge Edwin Cameron, a legal expert on HIV-Aids who is recognised internationally.

Mbeki first raised what is tagged the "dissident" view of HIV/Aids in parliament in October last year. He was drawn to this largely American debate which raged in the eighties while researching the effectiveness of the antiretroviral drug AZT.

The government had been criticised by the Aids lobby for its refusal to give AZT to pregnant mothers who are HIV-positive.

While doing Internet research on AZT, Mbeki came across the work of US-based scientist Peter Duesberg and other so-called dissident scientists who argue that Aids is a largely behavioral disease and that Aids cocktail drugs, like AZT, are therefore ineffective.

As the pandemic has evolved, this view has been trounced internationally. But Mbeki has invited Duesberg and other followers to sit on a national Aids council. Key NGO's, local scientists and other experts have been excluded from the Council.

In South Africa, scientists writing in newspapers have accused Mbeki of following a "flat earth theory in Aids science" and have likened his views to questioning the fact that "smoking cause lung cancer".

The most damning critique has come from Makgoba who is close to Mbeki and is an informal advisor to the president on the African Renaissance.

The current debate, he argued, was dangerous. "It is undermining the good strategies government has put in place and sending mixed signals to those who have dedicated themselves to the alleviation and eradication of this epidemic.

It's having a negative impact on patients and families. He added that Mbeki's methods were "undermining scientists and the scientific method in a developing country; and eroding foreign investor confidence in SA".

Under fire at home, Mbeki this month sought help from powerful friends. He wrote a letter to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and to US President Bill Clinton saying that he was in search of an African solution to Aids.

He argued that Aids had different manifestations in Africa: it was spread heterosexually and mortality figures were higher than in any other region in the world.

"It is obvious that whatever lessons we have to and may draw from the West about the grave issue of HIV-Aids, a simple imposition of Western experience on African reality would be absurd and illogical."

He continued that "I am convinced that our urgent task is to respond to the specific threat that faces us as Africans."

One of the reasons Mbeki wants to work with Duesberg is to probe the view that Aids has different manifestations in different regions of the world. Duesberg has written that "African Aids and American and European Aids are totally different things. They have the same name but that is all they have in common."

Although well intentioned, Mbeki has failed to convince. In the US, the Aids lobby is planning to picket Mbeki when he arrives next month for a state visit. And in South Africa, the gap between civil society and government is growing at a time when partnership is required.

The latest Aids statistics released last week revealed that about 4.2-million South Africans, or one in 10, are HIV-positive. Every month, 50 000 babies are born with HIV. (END/IPS/fk/sm/00)
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