Manto and the Aids dissident
2003-03-10 08:21
Special Report
The South African government has announced a joint venture to reduce the cost of anti-retroviral drugs with a Swiss company.
Cape Town - Aids dissident Robert Giraldo will not be appointed a ministerial adviser, says Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang.
Giraldo was part of a wide group of people being consulted as part of the department's review of its guidelines on nutrition for people living with Aids, tuberculosis and other debilitating conditions, she said in an interview on SABC radio.
"This is a continuous programme and we have not finished our exercise. If Giraldo does come to South Africa, it will be a continuation of what we have started already."
The guidelines were continuously under review, said Tshabalala-Msimang.
"At a meeting of Southern Africa Development Community health ministers in January, we looked at guidelines and getting additional information, not from just Giraldo, not from experts from South Africa, not the conventional ones, but also the SADC member states."
Need his nutritional expertise
Referring to newspaper headlines that Giraldo would be her adviser, she said that, according to the law, she was allowed only two and these positions already had been filled.
"But I'm also allowed to consult as widely as I can and it's just one of the people we're consulting because of his expertise in nutrition."
Giraldo was widely read in terms of nutrition and would bring expert advice, she said.
"He's not an adviser in that context, but just interacts with our own team which is trying to improve on guidelines."
On the fact that Giraldo did not believed that HIV caused Aids, Tshabalala-Msimang said: "I'm not interested. I think we're past that stage. Our own strategic plan is based on the premise that HIV causes Aids.
"I am only looking for expertise in nutrition," she said.
- SAPA