Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2005. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
South African Press Association - May 11, 2005
"The investigation has not yet been completed," they said in a joint statement in reply to a South African Press Association query.
"Therefore [we] are not at liberty to discuss the merits and demerits of the investigation, as doing so would jeopardise both the investigation and proposed interventions."
They said the investigation started at the beginning of April, and is led by the Registrar of Medicines, Dr Humphrey Zokufa, assisted by the head of the law-enforcement directorate in the department, Joey Gouws.
The announcement follows a claim last month by the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) that it had "substantial evidence" that vitamin entrepreneur Matthias Rath was running unregistered medical practices in Cape Town townships and was conducting "unauthorised, unethical and dangerous" experiments on people with HIV.
Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has been criticised for not condemning the activities of Rath, who is linked to Aids dissidents and has claimed in publicity material that anti-retrovirals are toxic and that the TAC is a front for the pharmaceutical industry.
The TAC is taking Rath to court in Cape Town on Friday over the claims.
The TAC told journalists in April that Rath had established facilities in the Khayelitsha, Nyanga and Mandela Park areas of Cape Town, where people purporting to be doctors distributed his multivitamins in his name.
The TAC said Rath was not registered with the Health Professions Council and that it was therefore illegal for him to run these practices.
In treating patients, Rath's agents claimed that anti-retrovirals should not be taken and that multivitamins were a treatment for Aids.
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