Manto appoints Aids dissident

2003-03-09 14:09

Cape Town - The government is expected to clarify news reports that Aids dissident Roberto Giraldo has been invited by Health Minister Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang to act as a nutritional adviser.

Health officials confirmed that a statement would be issued to explain the decision.

Meanwhile, the DA says it will ask for an urgent debate in the National Assembly on the minister's leadership role in the fight against HIV and Aids.

"Our country deserves a minister who is serious about fighting this disease. The debate will focus on why the minister should vacate her post," DA MP Sandy Kalyan said.

In her reaction Aids activist and PAC MP Patricia de Lille said South Africa would be safer with Tshabalala-Msimang in jail than out.

She was referring to the minister's recent comments voicing solidarity with Mpumalanga MEC Sibongile Manana who was facing contempt of court charges, in which Tshabalala-Msimang said: "If she (Sibongile Manana) goes to prison, I'm going with her." De Lille said one did not need a "rocket scientist" to advise the government on nutrition.

Nor was it necessary to employ an Aids dissident.

"It's disgusting. Every time the minister comes up with weird ideas," De Lille said.

Tshabalala-Msimang had packed the South African National Aids Council with dissidents "and now she wants to bring more dissidents to her department".

The Health Ministry was becoming a job-creation agency for dissidents, De Lille said.

In her reaction, Kalyan said the decision to appoint Giraldo as an adviser to the government was "the latest in a long series of blunders and gaffes on the minister's part".

"Dr Giraldo argues that anti-retroviral drugs induce rather than treat Aids, and that Aids is caused by nutritional deficiencies and not by HIV," Kalyan said.

Tshabalala-Msimang was the weakest link in South Africa's fight against HIV and Aids.

Among her recent gaffes was to tell a British newspaper that South Africa could not afford drugs to fight HIV or AIDS partly because it needed submarines to deter attacks from nations such as the United States, Kalyan said.

"The minister's blind belief in dissident views puts the department of health's credibility at risk," Kalyan said.

While a balanced diet was certainly a crucial element of any Aids treatment plan, it could never be a substitute for a holistic approach which should include access to anti-retroviral medication.

"South Africa needs a new Minister of Health," Kalyan said.

The Sunday Times reported at the weekend that Tshabalala-Msimang had decided to invite Giraldo to advise government on nutrition after she had been vindicated by a report of United Nations agencies, the World Health Organisation and the Food and Agricultural Organisation.

The manual recognises the relationship between infection and nutrition and suggests how those with HIV/Aids can fight the disease with a balanced diet.

"The WHO report vindicates our position that you can't overlook nutrition and just focus on drugs. Drugs on their own will not help.

"If you do not address the state of hunger, you have not begun dealing with the problem. I am inviting Dr Roberto Giraldo to come and assist us in formulating diets."

One of the manual's compilers, WHO scientist Randa Saadeh, told the Sunday Times good nutrition boosted the immune system and reduced the chance of opportunistic infections.

"We never said it replaces anti-retroviral drugs. Proper nutrition complements medication. It is not an alternative," she said.

- SAPA