A leading South African university has joined opposition to a German doctor's use of vitamins to fight HIV/Aids, accusing him of endangering lives by promoting an untested alternative to life-prolonging drugs.
Johannesburg's University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) has demanded Dr Matthias Rath stop what it says are unethical trials of his multivitamins on Aids sufferers in Cape Town's Khayelitsha township.
"While the university supports any ethical, scientifically valid research into alternative ways of managing HIV/Aids, we condemn the irresponsible and indeed potentially life-threatening activities of the Dr Rath Foundation," Wits Vice-Chancellor Loyiso Nongxa said. The trials had not been approved by any research ethics committee or been subjected to scientific scrutiny, he said.
The Rath Foundation in South Africa declined to comment on the statement.
The Wits statement follows a petition from Cape Town doctors and academics last week demanding the government act against Rath, who critics say is endangering the sick by persuading them to stop taking medicine that could prolong their lives.
"For patients with advanced HIV, stopping anti-retroviral medicine for even a few weeks can be the difference between life and death," the Cape Town petition said.
NOVEL TREATMENT
Western drug companies slammed
German-born doctor Matthias Rath denounces Aids drugs and claims that all those who promote them are paid lackeys of western drug companies.
Vitamins, not drugs, are the cure for Aids and cancer and diabetes too for that matter, he says. Dr Rath, who has offices in California, the Netherlands and, recently Cape Town, claims his vitamin supplements, which cost more than £16 (Dh104.5) a month, can prevent and cure most diseases.
