Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - September 24, 2006
Suthentira Govender

Prof Jerry Coovadia, head of the University of KwaZulu-Natal's HIV/Aids research unit, has trashed a theory by prominent Croftdene general practitioner Dr Nassim Kamdar that the use of Sugars - a deadly cocktail of heroin remnants, cocaine and Rattex - can cause immunodeficiency and develop into full-blown Aids.

Coovadia said such claims caused confusion and hampered the fight against the HIV epidemic.

Kamdar, who supports the widely discredited dissident belief that HIV does not cause Aids, hosted a public meeting last weekend to explain his views.

Hundreds of school pupils, taxi drivers and druglords in the Chatsworth area are hooked on Sugars.

Anti-drug campaigners said this week that they may use the doctor's claims as a "scare tactic" against addicts.

But Coovadia dismissed Kamdar's views as untrue and reckless.

"We've been through this argument in 2000, and long ago we laid that problem to rest," he said.

"If people continue raising these issues, which they don't understand, they would be entitled to their views if they kept them private. But they are certainly not entitled to a public expression of their views, because it endangers lives.

"If people keep resorting to unscientific information and making it sound true and reliable, the community have difficulty balancing the information they get from scientists and reliable sources against this kind of information."

Kamdar said he was guided by the scientific theory of American virologist Prof Peter Duesberg, who maintains HIV exists but is harmless.

Duesberg believes Aids is caused by factors such as drug abuse, malnutrition and even anti-retrovirals.

"In view of Prof Duesberg's findings that the level of retrovirus in the US remained constant during the Aids epidemic, but the incidence of Aids paralleled the drug-abuse epidemic at the time, I interpret this as strong evidence linking drugs to the direct development of immunodeficiency and hence Aids," said Kamdar.

"We are experiencing a Sugars epidemic in our community. If Duesberg is correct - and I suspect that he is - we are definitely going to face an Aids epidemic in the near future ... and it would be directly due to the drugs that are being taken and not due to HIV, a yet-to-be proven virus."

The Chatsworth HIV/Aids Forum has also criticised Kamdar's campaign, saying, "It is not something we will lend our support to."

Forum chairman Dr Kalappen Moodley said: "Certainly from a scientific point of view, it has been proven that the HIV virus was discovered in 1981 and that there is a clear relationship between the virus and Aids.

"The breakdown of immunity is related to a whole host of things ... drugs are probably one of the factors. Sugars can cause a fall in immunity, but it definitely does not cause Aids.

"It may be something that Dr Kamdar strongly believes in ... but it is not something we can agree with."

The founder of the Chatsworth Anti-Drug Forum, Sam Pillay, said Kamdar's talk was "enlightening and very controversial".

"Startling claims were made, which I feel need to be investigated by the medical fraternity," he said.

He did not dismiss Kamdar's views out of hand, and said he was likely to use the information in his fight against Sugars and other drugs in the community.

"We want to frighten people away from drugs, no matter what it takes. We would consider using it as a scare tactic," he said.

Kamdar said he wanted to prepare the community "for what is likely to come and prepare them on how to react, in order to get the best possible outcome".

He said a positive HIV test should be seen as a warning to adopt a healthy lifestyle and is "not an indication for ARVs".

Pastor Selvan Pillay of the Emmaus Fellowship Church in Silverglen, who attended Kamdar's talk, said he found it "very informative".

"I have learnt so much. There are always two sides to a story... this gave us a different view on how Aids is contracted," he said.

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