|
TAC: Stop 'vitamin businessman'
18/04/2005 15:00 - (SA)
Cape Town - The Treatment Action Campaign has threatened legal action against the Medicines Control Council (MCC) if the body does not act against controversial "vitamin entrepreneur" Matthias Rath.
"If the MCC and HPCSA (Health Professions Council of South Africa) fail to close down Rath's medical activities by April 27, TAC will proceed with further litigation to do so," the organisation said in a statement on Monday.
The statement said TAC had evidence that Rath was running unregistered medical practices in Cape Town's townships and was conducting "unauthorised, unethical and dangerous" experiments on people with HIV.
TAC has already asked the Cape High Court for an urgent order to stop Rath and his Dr Rath Health Foundation from claiming TAC is a front for the pharmaceutical industry.
That application will be heard on April 26. In it, TAC says the foundation claims its multivitamin products are effective in the treatment or prevention of Aids, and that it has been attacking those who promote antiretroviral drugs (ARVs).
TAC chairperson Zackie Achmat told a media briefing in Cape Town, where the statement was released, that TAC lawyers had written several letters to the MCC.
"We are still awaiting a formal response, a written response, from the MCC," he said. "Except for communication on the phone, the MCC has not taken its responsibility seriously."
'Snake-oil salesman'
"We want a full debate on medicines. We want a full discussion on medicines. But this is not debate. "This is criminality in the service of selling products. "And we want the MCC, the HPCSA to do their job, otherwise we will force them to do their job through the courts."
TAC's Khayelitsha district organiser, Mandla Majola, said he was concerned that people were becoming confused about ARVs in the face of his barrage of anti-ARV publicity.
"People are reluctant to take medication because of these statements," he said.
A spokesperson for the South African Medical Association, Dr Mark Sonderup, said Sama wholeheartedly supported TAC's moves to deal with Rath.
"We're not dealing with a common or garden variety snake-oil salesman," he said. "This is a lot more serious... We should not tolerate it as a society."
- SAPA
|
News
HIV/Aids Special Report
