German doctor says antiretrovirals are like poison

Drug war: South African activists protest against German doctor Matthias Rath (inset). Credit: Reuters/Mike Hutchings

A South African advertising campaign that touts multivitamins as a superior remedy for HIV/AIDS has set off a storm of international attention, with the United Nations condemning the ads as “wrong and misleading.”

The campaign, led by physician and vitamin supplier Matthias Rath, says antiretroviral drugs are poisonous and extols the benefits of multivitamins to treat AIDS. In its marketing literature, the Rath Foundation implies endorsement from several international bodies, including the World Health Organization, UNICEF and UNAIDS.

The agencies have since issued a joint statement denouncing his claims, while researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health have accused Rath of “deliberately misinterpreting” certain findings.

Rath's full-page advertisements, some of which have run in The New York Times and The International Herald Tribune, highlight a Harvard study in Tanzania that shows multivitamin supplements slowing AIDS progression.

The Harvard researchers say multivitamins should not be considered an alternative to antiretroviral therapy but a complementary intervention that is part of a comprehensive care package. “Antiretroviral therapy saves lives and its scale-up should be vigorously pursued in all countries,” they said in a statement. The Rath Foundation did not respond to queries on the matter.

Concerns over the ads, as well as claims that the foundation has been running unregistered medical practices in Cape Town, have already sparked an investigation by South Africa's Medicines Control Council.

Meanwhile, a senior government minister has issued a colorfully worded statement telling Rath to get lost and comparing him to Hitler's chief propagandist Joseph Goebbels. Minister Kader Asmal was responding to an April letter from Rath to all members of Parliament accusing the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), a prominent local group that lobbies for the rollout of free antiretrovirals, of being funded by “the pharmaceutical drug cartel”.

The TAC is currently pursuing an interdict against Rath in the country's High Court and says it is planning to sue for defamation. The trial has already been delayed by the entry of the Traditional Healers' Organisation, which purports to represent the country's estimated 200,000 healers and is backing Rath in the case.

The organization accuses the TAC of promoting western drugs ahead of alternative remedies and acting as a front for pharmaceutical companies. However, TAC leader Zackie Achmat says he's willing to promote medicines from any source, providing they are scientifically proven as safe and effective (Nat. Med. 11, 6; 2005).

No traditional remedies have thus far been approved in the country, and one herbal mixture touted as a possible cure failed to clear tests at the Medical University of South Africa.

The spate of activity has no doubt added to the general confusion blighting South Africa's AIDS patients about how best to care for themselves. At a recent press conference, health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang reiterated her support for garlic, lemon and beetroot as important sources of nutrition and warned of the side effects of anti-retrovirals. “Raw garlic and a skin of the lemon,” she said, “not only do they give you a beautiful face and skin, but they also protect you from disease.”