South Africa Appoints Consultant Who Rules Out Aids/hiv Link

The South African government was embroiled in a fresh row over its Aids policy yesterday when the health ministry confirmed hiring a controversial scientist who disputes the link between HIV and Aids.

Roberto Giraldo, a leader of the so-called Aids dissidents, has been included in a team of experts to advise the government on how to combat the virus, which infects 4.7 million South Africans.

Aids activists renewed accusations that the authorities could not be serious about tackling the pandemic while listening to those who argued against the provision of life-extending medicine.

Dr Giraldo reportedly believes that the anti-retroviral drugs available in the west induce rather than treat Aids, and that the disease is caused by nutritional deficiencies - a belief apparently shared by President Thabo Mbeki, who has linked Aids to poverty. Critics said he was reluctant to accept a link with sexual behaviour.

Earlier this year Dr Giraldo was invited by the South African government to brief a meeting of African experts on how to tackle the pandemic.

News that the US-based dissident would be consulted on a regular basis prompted opposition calls for the resignation of the health minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, a close ally of the president. In interviews yesterday she played down the significance of the appointment, saying the scientist would not be an official adviser but one of many consultants, and that he would offer advice solely on how to boost immune systems with food.

Ms Tshabalala-Msimang said that she was not interested in Dr Giraldo's controversial views on the link between HIV and Aids, a link the cabinet publicly accepted last year.

"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."

The minister said she was merely following up the latest findings from the World Health Organisation and other UN bodies which detailed the importance of diet in delaying the onset of full-blown Aids.

Critics said the government was focusing on food as a diversion from the issue of anti-retroviral drugs, which are unavailable to most infected South Africans - 200,000 are expected to die this year.

The Treatment Action Campaign, a leading Aids activist group, said it would launch a campaign of civil disobedience on March 21 unless the ruling African National Congress agreed to make the drugs widely available.

Sandy Kalyan of the opposition Democratic Alliance said her party would seek an urgent debate in parliament on the minister's policy on HIV and Aids. "Our country deserves a minister who is serious about fighting this disease. The debate will focus on why the minister should vacate her post," she said.