AEGiS-NYT: South Africa: Study Challenges Garlic Claim

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2007. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

South Africa: Study Challenges Garlic Claim

The New York Times - August 23, 2007
Michael Wines

In an implicit rebuke to the Health Ministry, the Academy of Sciences of South Africa said its studies had found no scientific basis for the use of nutritional supplements as a first-line defense against H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. The country's health minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, has been widely criticized for questioning the safety of anti-H.I.V. drugs and promoting nostrums like garlic, beetroot and lemon as effective agents against the disease. The academy's report did not rule out the usefulness of good nutrition in countries like South Africa, where malnutrition is more widespread, and noted that a good diet was important in maintaining the body's defenses against AIDS. But a healthy diet, it stated, plays a backup role to drugs like antiretrovirals in the body's fight against AIDS.

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