From the Guardian:
South African president's refusal to accept medical evidence of virus was major obstacle to providing medicine, say Harvard researchers.
The Aids policies of the former South African president Thabo Mbeki's government were directly responsible for the avoidable deaths of more than a third of a million people in the country, according to research by Harvard university.
South Africa has one of the severest HIV/Aids epidemics in the world. About 5.5 million people, or 18.8% of the adult population, have HIV, according to the UN. In 2005, there were about 900 deaths a day.
But from the late 1990s Mbeki turned his back on the scientific consensus that Aids was caused by a viral infection that could be fought – though not cured – by sophisticated and expensive medical drugs. He came under the influence of a group of maverick scientists known as Aids denialists, most prominent among whom was Peter Duesberg from Berkeley, California.
....
Following Mbeki's ousting from the leadership of the African National Congress in September, South Africa is now urgently pursuing new policies to get treatment to as many people as possible under a new health minister, Barbara Hogan.
I search in vain for words to comment on this horror.
Thanks (or no thanks) to Lapin for this, too.
He has a lot to answer for, that's for sure.
ReplyDeleteBut so did Ronald Reagan. I trust that he, at least, has now seen the error of his ways...
Pax,
Doxy
It is criminal not only in South Africa, but all over the African continent. There are those extremists in positions of power who are sticking their heads in the sand, or blaming "the European" for bringing HIV/AIDS to Africa. And it is, IMHO, the same mindset that also supports an Akinola or an Orombi. Sick, sick, sick. And at what cost to people?!?!
ReplyDeleteCriminal, yes.
ReplyDeleteYou can only blame "the European" for introducing AIDS into Africa if you overlook mountains of epidemiological data that indicate HIV originated in African primate populations and jumped the species barrier somewhere in the early decades of the 20th century.
ReplyDeleteBut if you can ignore all the evidence that HIV causes AIDS, I guess you can ignore that too. Plus, it sounds a lot more interesting to accuse particular groups of people or "the government" of spreading the virus on purpose.
(Not to say that governments and/or groups of people or individuals haven't played a role in making HIV/AIDS much worse than it had to be...)
Pax,
Doxy
Prove to me that HIV causes AIDS. Show me real proof and I will tell everybody I know. As a former HIV/AIDS believer, I have studied this subject inside and out. I want one person to explain to me in detail the very proof that links HIV and AIDS. Please email at jstokely2@gmail.com.
ReplyDeleteBentrider, no. I'm not wasting my time.
ReplyDeleteyes, this was inevitable.
ReplyDeleteI've never understood what the hell got into Duesberg. He had quite a good reputation as a retrovirologist before the HIV nonsense. I don't know what happened to him. Being skeptical and demanding is one thing; but when it starts to cause lives, it is arrogance run amok.
IT
Mimi,
ReplyDeleteI'm not asking you to waste your time. I'm just asking you to educate me and others. Oh and please explain to my wife why she is at the peak of health after getting off the drugs but very sick and wasting when she was on the combo therapy. You can talk politics all you want but we are living proof. My wife really wants you to explain why she is healthy now but was near death on the drugs. Do you have AIDS or are you just chanting the AIDS mantra. Any other disease in history you would have had enormous applause for beating the odds. For this dis-ease you are told you are a denialist even if you are living proof. Please respond.
bent
www.myspace.com/rethinkaids
IT,
ReplyDeleteread my prior post then read this:
http://www.californiaconservative.org/academia/hiv-aids-gallos-egg/#more-5871
Its not about politics, its about people. Horrible drugs will not help the people of Africa with AIDS. AIDS in Africa is a new name given to an old condition caused by malnutrition and disease. Their blood is on the hands of those that continue to dump drugs on Africa. Please don't continue the myth.
I'm still waiting on a reply please. If you can explain to me why my wife needs to go back on the drugs, I want to listen to you.
ReplyDeletebent
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteBentrider, that's way too long. It's gone.
ReplyDeletehttp://hivskeptic.wordpress.com/2008/10/26/poison-in-south-africa
ReplyDeleteDid you read the long article that you deleted?