South Africa strikes back at pre-conference AIDS declaration
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- On Monday, the South African government slammed as "intolerant" a declaration made Saturday by more than 5,000 leading scientists and doctors concerning the cause of AIDS.
Called the Durban Declaration, the scientists' statement reaffirms the belief that HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus, is the cause of AIDS.
The declaration’s signers said the statement was prompted by recent comments from South African President Thabo Mbeki, who has expressed skepticism that HIV causes AIDS and has included dissident researchers such as American Peter Duesberg on a presidential panel investigating the disease in South Africa.
Its publication just a week before the Sunday opening of the world’s largest AIDS meeting here, was expressly condemned.
"How can you draft a declaration and adopt it before the conference?" said presidential spokesman Parks Mankahlana. "We have never seen this kind of intolerance and we don't want people brining intolerance to South Africa."
South Africa has one of the highest AIDS rates in the world, with more than 4 million people infected.
Mbeki also has aroused criticism by refusing to provide the anti-AIDS drug AZT to pregnant women who are HIV positive, even though it has been proven to drastically reduce the chances of the virus being passed to newborns. He says the drug is too dangerous to use.
"If we have erred in the search for knowledge, then we shall have erred in an effort to do what is good for our people and our country," Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said Monday during the second meeting of the special presidential panel. She asked the panel to search for appropriate prevention strategies, discuss the role of poverty in the disease and find the best way for diagnosing AIDS in Africa.
Saying the government's efforts were well-meaning, Tshabalala-Msimang labeled the declaration as "elitism," while Mankahlana warned critics to take care.
"President Mbeki may be wrong in raising his questions, but you cannot take away his right to ask," he said. "People are entitled to make declarations but people must be careful they don't confine their work on HIV/AIDS to Mbeki bashing."
The presidential advisory panel, made up of scientists from around the world, first met in May. Its Monday meeting comes a week before 12,000 scientists, health workers and AIDS activists are to meet at the 13th International AIDS Conference in Durban.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.