TAC warns minister and council to act against Rath
September 05, 2005 Edition 1
Anso Thom
Health-e News Service
The Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang and the Medicines Control Council (MCC) will be taken to court if they do not take immediate action to stop the Dr Rath Health Foundation conducting illegal medical experiments on HIV-positive Khayelistsha residents.
"The health minister and the MCC are responsible for the failure to stop Matthias Rath," said Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) spokesperson Nathan Geffen, adding that TAC had sent letters to the MCC and Tshabalala-Msimang stating that it will take legal action unless the minister and the regulatory body act (against Rath) very soon.
The TAC's threat followed revelations that the Rath Foundation was still using Khayelitsha people with HIV as human guinea pigs in a series of illegal medical experiments, touting cocktails of micro-nutrients (vitamins) as a treatment for the disease.
The Rath Foundation does not have the approval of the MCC to conduct a trial, has not registered its products with the MCC and makes unsubstantiated claims about their healing powers - all in violation of the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act. Registrar of medicines at the MCC, Dr Humphrey Zokufa, has failed to respond to numerous messages and faxes.
Health-e has affidavits from five TAC volunteers who say that, after agreeing to take the pills, they were photographed and had blood taken without giving proper consent. These affidavits were contained in a complaint the TAC lodged with the MCC in May.
Rath has claimed on his website that the results from the Khayelitsha study were a reason for "mankind to be overjoyed about the fact that it can now rid itself of the Aids scourge". Rath has stated on several occasions that anti-retrovirals are toxic.
SA National Civic Organisation (Sanco) members are acting as agents for the Rath Foundation, and have set up clinics throughout the township. However, Sanco members refused Health-e access to one of these, a small pink house in Site B.
Sanco street committee members are said to target people in their areas who are known to have HIV or to be sick, and to encourage them to attend one of the clinics where they are prescribed up to 20 vitamin tablets a day.
Both the South African Communist Party and Cosatu have accused Sanco members of being paid R100 for every patient they recruit to the Rath programme, a claim denied by Sanco Khayelitsha chairperson Ndzanywa Ndibongo.
The SACP's Luthando Nogcinisa said that Rath "has been given an opportunity to abuse our people and use them for experimenting with his treatment". The Rath Foundation has declined to comment.
