Sir

Incredulous as I am about South African President Thabo Mbeki's ill-informed perspective on HIV and AIDS, I am even more incredulous that, according to your News report “Letter fuels South Africa's AIDS furore” (Nature 404, 911; 2000), the president of the World Bank, James Wolfensohn, “promised that there would be ‘no limit’ to the funds available for combating AIDS in the developing world”.

Does this mean the World Bank intends to assume the entire cost of AIDS medicine and medical care for all those in the developing world? I very much doubt it. It is precisely this kind of claim — reported without qualification — that makes Mbeki and many others regard Western pronouncements on AIDS as untrustworthy.

Your reporter's description of the right-wing Boerestaat party's support for Mbeki's stance as coming “from an unusual quarter” overlooks the well-reported right-wing sentiments of several prominent US opponents of the HIV–AIDS connection. Many right-wingers see AIDS as a “moral” disease, caused by degenerate sexual and drug habits. It is not surprising that those sharing this political perspective have opposed efforts, such as clean-needle programmes, aimed at resisting the spread of this scourge.

To minds such as these, death from AIDS is the appropriate remedy for immoral behaviour. Those who support the South African right wing are also unlikely to feel distressed at the prospect of an AIDS-depopulated black Africa.