Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - April 8, 2001
Bobby Jordan and Mike Cherry
The result - the first to emerge from the three-phase investigation into HIV testing - represents a victory for the orthodox scientific view that HIV causes AIDS, AIDS activists claimed this week.
AIDS dissidents have consistently questioned South Africa's high HIV/AIDS prevalence - the most infections worldwide - raising doubts about the "robustness" and accuracy of HIV tests.
"The outcome of the experiment was in many ways a foregone conclusion," said Mark Heywood, head of the AIDS Law Project, adding that he thought it bizarre to have spent precious resources entertaining dissident HIV views.
"To see opinions that HIV testing should be suspended, recorded under the imprint of the SA Presidency is, to me, a disgrace."
Heywood also questioned why the result - released by the Medical Research Council chairman, Malegapuru Makgoba, on Thursday - had not been mentioned at the launch of the advisory panel's interim report on Wednesday, addressed by Health Minister Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang.
Makgoba denied there was anything unusual about the timing of the HIV-test accuracy disclosure. He described the 99,9% accuracy score as "the best score you'll ever get in a quality assessment".
"This has nothing to do with orthodox or dissident views - it has got to do with building confidence in the public health system. It will give people a lot of confidence that people in this country are not going to be transfused with contaminated blood," Makgoba said.
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