TAC Statement



1 June 2001



GCIS Misinforms on HIV/AIDS Treatment



In a letter to the Cape Argus (30 May), the head of the Western Cape

branch of the Government Communications and Information Services (GCIS),

Al-Ameen Kafaar, asks Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) why the

organisation is treating black people like "guinea pigs". Kafaar's

letter is mischievous, because it tries to create confusion, and

dangerous, because it demonstrates scientific illiteracy on a life and

death issue. 



MSF are not testing the pharmacological efficacy of antiretroviral

medicines. Triple-drug antiretroviral therapy has reduced HIV/AIDS

mortality rates by over 70% in Europe and America, and by more than 50%

in Brazil. People with HIV in these countries can now live longer,

healthier lives. MSF have implemented the Khayelitsha programme to

demonstrate that "antiretroviral therapy in a primary health care

setting in a resource-poor African environment is feasible, affordable

and reproducible." Contrary to the implication in the GCIS statement,

MSF counsels the programme participants extensively on the potential

side-effects of taking these medicines. But results the world over,

including extensive experience in South Africa, indicate that the

benefits of antiretroviral therapy far outweigh the risks. Indeed the

participants in this programme are taking an opportunity which most of

their fellow citizens are denied because of lack of government political

will to fight this epidemic and unaffordable drug prices.



The GCIS rhetoric is reminiscent of the Apartheid Government's Bureau of

Information, which also used false propaganda to hide a complete lack of

regard for black people and to discredit the mass democratic movement.

Is the government embarrassed that its constitutional duties to protect

life and dignity are being carried out by MSF? 



Kafaar writes "let's stop politicising Aids". TAC agrees that political

parties should not use HIV/AIDS for petty points-scoring. However, the

lack of a coherent treatment plan is resulting in premature and

unneccessary deaths. Nothing could be more political.



Kafaar's statement only makes sense in the context of the discredited

view that HIV does not cause AIDS.

This is not the stated viewpoint of the government or the ANC. But since

the GCIS is an organ of state leaders, one must conclude that there are

people in government who still do not believe that HIV causes AIDS. This

demonstrates that some of this country's leaders are hopelessly out of

touch with the daily reality of HIV/AIDS faced by South Africans. Is our

government treating the lives of over 4 million predominantly poor black

people as dispensable?



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GCIS Letter

Black people are not Aids’ guinea pigs

(Letter to Cape Argus from Al-Ameen Kafaar --

Government Information Services Western Cape)

It was heartwarming to read in your edition of 25 May

("Hope for state Aids patients), that new hope is to

be given to people living with Aids in Khayelitsha. 

I am sure the patients selected by Medicins Sans

Frontieres (MSF) for the triple-therapy

anti-retroviral cocktail will pin all their hopes on

this treatment, if not to cure them then at least to

prolong their lives.

For their sake, we can only hope their prayers will be

answered.

However, I would like to raise the question, why are

they still being used as guinea pigs?

Another publication reported earlier that MSF already

tested the antiretrovirals on sufferers in Europe. Why

test them again? The argument is that we all know that

HIV causes Aids.

In other words, the conclusion reached after the tests

in Europe should deliver the same results in Africa.

MSF should be careful.

They might be accused of supporting President Thabo

Mbeki’s argument that the approach to Aids in Africa

should be different from that in Europe. However, to

use the words of MP Ruth Bengu, let’s stoppoliticising

Aids and look at the human aspect of this scourge.

I think it is only fair of MSF to warn the public that

the antiretrovirals could have side-effects such as

liver and heart disease. Anaemia and diabetes, as

indicated in an earlier report.

Please remember, as our Health Minister Manto

Tshabalala-Msimang and her predecessor Nkosazana

Dhlamini-Zuma said, blacks are human too, and are not

just to be used in experiments.

Signed: Al-Ameen Kafaar --GCIS Western Cape