Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - March 9, 2003
S'thembiso Msomi And Ranjeni Munusamy
Giraldo, a member of President Thabo Mbeki's Aids advisory panel, believes Aids is caused by nutritional deficiencies, not HIV. He also argues that antiretroviral drugs induce rather than treat Aids.
Tshabalala-Msimang told the Sunday Times this week that she had decided to invite Giraldo to advise the government on nutrition after she had been "vindicated" by a manual prepared by United Nations agencies the World Health Organisation and the Food and Agriculture Organisation.
The manual, released last week in Geneva, recognises the relationship between infection and nutrition, and suggests how people with HIV/Aids can fight the disease with a balanced diet.
"A good diet is one of the simplest means of helping people live with HIV/Aids and may even help delay the progression of the deadly virus," the agencies said in a statement.
William Clay of the Food and Agriculture Organisation's food and nutrition division said: "The nutritional aspect of HIV/Aids has been ignored for a long time. The attention was always focused on drugs.
"Food isn't a magic bullet. It won't stop people dying of Aids. But it can help them live longer, more comfortable and more productive lives."
Tshabalala-Msimang said this confirmed what the South African government "has been saying all along".
"The WHO report vindicates our position that you can't overlook nutrition and just focus on drugs. Drugs on their own will not help. If you do not address the state of hunger, you have not begun dealing with the problem," Tshabalala-Msimang said. "I am inviting Dr Roberto Giraldo to come and assist us in formulating diets."
Tshabalala-Msimang enraged Aids activists in January by inviting Giraldo to address a meeting of Southern African Development Community health ministers.
"The transmission of Aids from person to person is a myth," Giraldo told the meeting. "The homosexual transmission of the epidemic in Western countries, as well as the heterosexual transmission in Africa, is an assumption made without any scientific validation.
"No matter what the debate might be on the role of HIV in Aids, malnourishment is at the centre of its progression ," he said.
WHO scientist Randa Saadeh, one of the compilers of the manual, said good nutrition boosted the immune system and reduced the chance of opportunistic infections.
"We never said it replaces anti-retroviral drugs. Proper nutrition complements medication. It is not an alternative," she said.
There was no scientific evidence that bad nutrition caused Aids, she added.
The manual was not based on new studies but was an "accumulation of scientific research already out there".
Tshabalala-Msimang's spokesman, Sibani Mngadi, said: "We are not interested in [Giraldo's] belief around the causal link between HIV and Aids and he is not expected to advise the government on that issue.
"Our strategy is based on the premise that HIV causes Aids."
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