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Govt Aids fight doomed
24/03/2002 19:00 - (SA)
Johannesburg - Professor Malegapuru William Makgoba warned that the
government's efforts to combat the HIV/Aids epidemic could be
doomed to failure, the Sunday Independent has reported.
Makgoba, one of South Africa's foremost scientists and the
president of the Medical Research Council, said in an interview
that the ANC's long-awaited national executive committee (NEC)
statement "Lend a Caring Hand of Hope", released last week, carried
the unmistakable imprint of the discredited "dissident" view of
Aids.
Makgoba said that the re-emergence of the dissident view -
after a long interval in which President Thabo Mbeki has taken a
back seat on the issue - spelt disaster.
"These arguments [the dissident view] have been rehashed ad
nauseam. Wherever they have been rejected there has been successful
control of the HIV epidemic and wherever they have become part of a
debate there has only been confusion and denial and the continuing
spread of the epidemic in these countries," Makgoba said.
Makgoba's criticism of the ANC's latest challenge to established medical science on Aids came in a week in which the ANC said it had a duty to engage in scientific debate about Aids.
The ANC claimed it was "duty bound to pose scientific
questions", warning "we shall not be stampeded into precipitate
action by pseudo-science, an uncaring drive for profits or an
opportunistic clamour for cheap popularity".
Makgoba remarked: "When the government is provided with answers
- the best scientific opinion on the world that is available -
they simply refuse and this behaviour is the sine qua non
characteristic of a refusenik or denialist.
"Government has rather enjoyed dabbling with scientifically
unproven ideas which it uses as the basis of debate.
"In order for any government to make a policy decision it is
duty bound to seek the expertise of the professionals for their
evidence based on information so that they can make informed
decisions in the best interests of public. Whenever they have been
given this kind of information they have simply refused [to accept]
it."
- SAPA
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