Aids patient backs Manto
2005-05-06 08:51
Special Report
The South African government has announced a joint venture to reduce the cost of anti-retroviral drugs with a Swiss company.
Pietermaritzburg - A Pietermaritzburg woman with full-blown Aids has voiced her support for Health Minister Manto Tshabalala Msimang's controversial lemon and garlic diet.
Nozipho Bhengu, 31, said she had been on the diet for the past three years and "It works, I'm the scientific proof."
Bhengu's HIV-status became national public knowledge in 2001 when her mother, Inkatha Freedom Party MP Ruth Bhengu, told the National Assembly about her daughter's HIV status.
Bhengu said at first nutrition did not mean much to her but, she became so sick that her CD4 count had dropped to 55 and she thought she was going to die. That was when Tshabalala Msimang re-introduced her to Tina van der Maas an ex-colleague and the person behind the minister's nutrition plan.
At that stage Bhengu had been to several doctors, her liver was inflamed and she had a growth on her spleen. Bhengu said she had also been on antiretrovirals for a week but her body could not handle the medication.
She then went onto the diet formulated by Van der Maas and "within three months I could see results."
Although she was still considered to have full blown Aids because of a CD4 count of 134 "I am productive" and said she was completely healthy.
'She is a leader'
"I don't care what people say about the minister, she is a leader and a leader is always ahead. In five years time they will know what she is talking about" said Bhengu.
On Thursday Tshabalala-Msimang again told the media: "ARVs do not cure and they do have side effects. I do not know of any side effects of eating proper food."
Last month at the launch of her department's ethical guidelines for Aids research, the minister showed a documentary video in which Van der Maas showed bedridden Aids patients who had returned to "normal health" after two to three months on the programme.
Van der Maas, a nurse who has been working with South African HIV/Aids sufferers since 1989 remains confident that the diet is "affordable, available and sustainable" and says she has treated over 40 000 people since 1995.
"With this wellness programme you can reverse the condition of someone with full-blown Aids to an HIV-positive status," said Van der Maas.
- SAPA