Linda Ensor
22 August 2007
Cape Town — Beleaguered Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has been criticised in a report by a prestigious panel of South African scientists for spreading confusion about the best treatment for HIV/Aids.
The scientists have also repudiated the minister's nutrition-based remedies for the epidemic such as garlic, olive oil, African potato and beetroot as not only lacking any scientific foundation but possibly beinh harmful as well.
They also implicitly rejected remedies such as those proffered by vitamin guru Mathias Rath.
Tshabalala-Msimang has been buffeted by a wave of negative reports over the past two weeks concerning her fraught relationship with her axed deputy Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge and her controversial liver transplant.
A consensus report on the findings of an investigation by a panel of 15-members of the Academy of Science of SA to be released today, says no evidence whatsoever had been found to suggest that healthier eating was any substitute for correctly used medical drugs.
"Until these remedies have been proven to do more good than harm, the panel cannot support their use," the scientists say in their report. They note that consumption of virgin olive oil, African potato and garlic could, in fact, be harmful.
The report, with a set of policy recommendations, has been handed to the government. It was compiled after an exhaustive analysis of all the scientific research conducted so far on possible links between improved nutrition and the treatment of HIV/Aids and tuberculosis.
The report says "Recent public debate about the value of certain foodstuffs and supplements in the management of HIV and Aids as well as claims of benefit and cure arising from unproven diets and therapies have caused confusion within communities and among health care workers".
Senior community and political leaders have contributed to the "enormous confusion" by expressing concern about potential toxicities of antiretroviral drugs while promoting alternative nutritional therapies.
" No food, no component made from food, and no food supplement has been identified in any credible study as an effective alternative to appropriate medication," says Wits professor and National Health Laboratory Services pathologist Barry Mendelow, a specialist in blood disorders, who chaired the study.
The diverse panel included nutritionists, immunologists, biochemists, infectious disease physicians, paediatricians, policy experts, epidemiologists and generalists.
The panel investigated the influence of nutrition on human immunity systems.
Appointed in October 2005, the panel included people such as Dr Mohamed Ali Dhansay of the Medical Research Council, Dr Clive Gray of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, and Dr Helen Rees and Dr Francois Venter of the Reproductive Health and HIV Research Unit.
The scientists stress the importance of optimum nutrition in reducing the spread of HIV/Aids and TB and endorsed the health department's nutrition programme.
They say malnutrition and poverty remained contributing factors in many infections, including HIV/Aids and tuberculosis, but stressed that neither caused these epidemics.
The scientists emphasised the urgent need for research into the nutritional support required by those infected with HIV and TB.
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