Toronto — Just hours before the official opening of the 16th International AIDS Conference last night, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang whipped up controversy over the best way to treat HIV patients, extolling the benefits of garlic, beetroot, lemons and the African potato.

This is in spite of the University of Stellenbosch's Nutrition Information Centre warning three years ago that the African potato caused bone marrow suppression in HIV patients, and cautioned against its use.

"We have a constitution which says people have choices to make. If people choose to use traditional medicine ... why not give them those choices?" said the minister as she opened the Khomanani exhibition stand at the conference. Khomanani is government's primary HIV/AIDS awareness campaign. Its future is uncertain after the health department failed to issue a new tender for its management.

While the minister's provocative views on the relative benefits of nutrition and antiretroviral medicines for people infected with HIV are no secret, delegates were shocked to hear her express them so forcefully ahead of such a high-profile gathering.

The week-long international AIDS conference is the largest of its kind, and is expected to draw more than 25000 experts.

"There's absolutely no empirical, scientific evidence" that garlic and lemon juice boost the immune system, said Dr Harry Moultrie, a South African HIV paediatrician based at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital.

"I think it's despicable for you to bow to the minister's wishes and display (these things)," he said angrily to Khomanani campaign manager Peddie Nhlapo.

In addition to posters and literature about government's comprehensive plan for the prevention, care and treatment of people affected by HIV/AIDS, SA's exhibition stand displayed beaded bowls of garlic, lemons, beetroot and African potatoes among the shelves of crafts made by people living with HIV.

Details about government's free AIDS drug programme, the largest in the world, were by contrast limited to leaflets. Government has committed R3,4bn to pharmaceutical firms under contract to supply the medicines used in its treatment programme, which now reaches more than 140000 patients.

Ministerial spokesman Sibane Mngadi said the vegetables, displayed among packets of samp and nutritional supplements, were intended to highlight the "multi-pronged interventions government can make".

Shortly after fielding questions from journalists, Khomanani staff hurriedly added two vials of AIDS drugs to the stand's shelves. Nhlapo contradicted Mngadi, saying the exhibition had been intended to include antiretroviral medicines, but this had not been possible because the samples were in his suitcase, which had been lost in transit from SA.

SA's HIV/AIDS epidemic is one of the world's worst, with 5,4-million people infected.