AIDS Orthodoxy Shaken Up By Maverick Physician

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AIDS Orthodoxy Shaken Up By Maverick Physician

Fri, 3 Jun 2005 20:03:01 +0100

 

 

 

 

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AIDS Orthodoxy Shaken Up By Maverick Physician

 

© By Peter Chowka

 

 

Matthias Rath, M.D.

Source: Dr. Rath Health Foundation

 

(June 1, 2005) The highest profile challenge in at least five years to

the international medical-industrial complex's mega-billion-dollar,

drug-centered research and treatment approach to confronting HIV/AIDS

is occurring right now in South Africa (SA). In 2000, debate about

HIV/AIDS also raged in that nation as SA President Thabo Mbeki

challenged the partly line that HIV causes AIDS and rejected, for a

time, the treatment of individuals who test positive for HIV, and/or

who have symptoms associated with AIDS, exclusively with expensive,

highly toxic antiretroviral drugs.

 

Eventually, coordinated efforts and outright threats by the world's

allopathic medical experts, the powerful HIV/AIDS Establishment, NGOs

(non governmental organizations including so-called private

charities), Western politicians, the United Nations, and the

mainstream media succeeded in somewhat reigning in Mbeki on the

HIV/AIDS issue. To a surprising extent, however, Mbeki's government,

which is still in power in SA, has not embraced the drug treatment

approach to HIV/AIDS completely or quickly enough in the view of its

critics.

 

During the past year, another antagonist has engaged the experts:

Matthias Rath, M.D., a German born medical doctor who has worked in

the United States, including, for a short time in the early 1990s,

with the late Nobel Prize winning scientist Linus Pauling, Ph.D. The "

about Dr. Rath " page of one of Rath's Web sites describes the doctor:

" Matthias Rath, M.D. is an internationally respected physician,

researcher, author and humanitarian. Dr. Rath's scientific discoveries

in the areas of heart disease and cancer are reshaping medicine. "

Rath's brief association with Pauling involved their proposing a

theory of heart disease being related to vitamin C.

 

 

 

Rath's Background

 

Rath currently highlights his association with Pauling as one of the

key points in his biography. In an April 2003 interview at his Web

site, Rath claims " Linus Pauling and I were more than scientific

colleagues. We shared a common vision for a healthier and more

peaceful world. Thus, it is not surprising that shortly before his

death, Linus Pauling stated that there is no doubt that he considered

me as his successor. " Rath does not provide a reference for this

reported comment by Pauling. Moreover, in March 1994, Rath sued the

Linus Pauling Institute of Science and Medicine in California (which

Pauling founded and worked at until his death) for allegedly taking

credit for his (Rath's) work and Rath made much of this legal

challenge at the time. Rath continued to pursue the lawsuit even after

Pauling died at age 93 on August 19, 1994. The suit was finally

dismissed on November 4,1994 when a Superior Court judge rejected all

of Rath's claims.

 

During the latter half of the 1990s and into the 21st Century, Rath,

according to his Web sites, developed and proposed a variety of

nutritionally-based " solutions " for heart disease and cancer, and put

forth a concept of " cellular medicine, " which was defined as a " new

branch of medicine that scientifically establishes nutrient

deficiencies as the root cause of today's most common diseases.

Cellular Medicine identifies the optimum daily intake levels of

essential nutrients for disease prevention and treatment. " (This

description sounds very similar to Orthomolecular Medicine, a

nutritionally-based medicine that Pauling , Abram Hoffer, M.D., Ph.D.,

and other clinicians and researchers began establishing in the 1960s.)

Further, Rath proposed a comprehensive critique of Medicine, Inc., as

it were. He expanded his critique to national and geopolitics, making

comments like " the pharmaceutical industry was exposed as the largest

corporate benefactor of the September 11 tragedy and the current war. "

A headline on his foundation's Web site on May 31, 2005 claimed " The

Pharmaceutical Drug Cartel Launches World War III To Prevent the

Construction of a Healthy World. "

 

 

 

Rath Takes on AIDS, Inc.

 

In the spring of 2005, Rath paid for the publication of a series of

full page advertisements in the New York Times, the International

Herald Tribune, and other mainstream newspapers including a major

daily in South Africa. One of the ads, published May 10, 2005, was

titled " Stop AIDS Genocide By the Drug Cartel! " The advertisement

reads, in part, " This human tragedy [of AIDS in Africa] has become a

multi-billion dollar market for the pharmaceutical investment business

- the drug cartel - in which the return of investment is based on the

continuation of the AIDS epidemic. To maintain their global market

with patented AIDS drugs, the pharmaceutical drug cartel promotes

so-called antiretroviral (ARV drugs) to combat immune deficiencies.

These ARV drugs severely damage all cells in the body - including

white blood cells - thereby not improving but rather worsening immune

deficiencies and expanding the AIDS epidemic. . . The time has come to

stop these crimes against humanity and to present to the people of

Africa and the world the effective, safe and affordable solution to

the AIDS epidemic. Progress in natural health now offers this

opportunity. " The ad identifies the culprits in Rath's view, including

President George W. Bush, the World Bank, the UN (WHO/UNAIDS), the

U.S. Institute of Medicine, and the " Drug Cartel. "

 

In contrast to the conventional pharmaceutical treatment methods

favored the individuals and agencies Rath singles out, he proposes

that " Micronutrients Alone Can Promote the Defense Against AIDS. "

 

And why does Rath focus on the country of South Africa? " South

Africa, " according to the ad, " Leads Global Health Liberation from the

Drug Cartel. . .Through their involvement in the AIDS epidemic the

drug cartel has turned South Africa and the African continent into a

battleground to force its multi-billion dollar drug business upon the

entire developing world. The people and the government of South Africa

have taken on this fight by basing its health care system on effective

and affordable natural health solutions. The scientific foundation for

this health approach is documented in every textbook of biology and

biochemistry: vitamins and other micronutrients are essential

cofactors for optimum metabolism of millions of cells in our body -

including the cells responsible for effective immune defense. By doing

so the South African government is tearing down the artificial wall

built in the interest of the drug cartel between biological science

and pharma-oriented medicine. Withholding life-saving information

about effective natural health and keeping the people of the world

'health illiterate' has been the basis for the multi-billion dollar

global investment business with patented synthetic drugs. In this war

between natural health and the 'business with disease' of the drug

cartel there can be only one winner.The control of the AIDS epidemic

through natural means, which is now in sight, will inevitably

terminate the unscrupulous multi-billion dollar drug business with the

AIDS epidemic. In this battle for its survival the drug cartel and its

political stakeholders are currently mounting their last offensive' on

Africa. "

 

In April and May 2005, Rath was dragged into court in South Africa by

the TAC (Treatment Action Campaign). According to Kaiser Foundation's

Daily HIV/AIDS Report for April 15, 2005, " The South African HIV/AIDS

treatment advocacy group Treatment Action Campaign has asked the Cape

High Court to issue a temporary injunction to prevent the Rath

Foundation and its head, Matthias Rath, from making defamatory

statements about the organization, South Africa's Cape Argus reports.

In its ads, the Rath Foundation suggests that TAC and other groups are

'front organizations' for the pharmaceutical industry and that the

group has misled people to believe that 'exorbitantly expensive and

highly toxic drugs like AZT and nevirapine' can successfully treat HIV

infection, the Cape Argus reports. TAC has encouraged the South

African government to provide access to antiretroviral drugs for

HIV-positive people in the country. Rath and his foundation have filed

a response to TAC's request, saying that the foundation's claims about

antiretrovirals are true and their criticism of TAC is allowed under

the constitutional right to free _expression, according to the Cape

Argus. "

 

The High Court case continues as of this writing. Blow by blow reports

of the court proceedings and arguments (with Rath in attendance),

coverage of the demonstrations by supporters of both sides outside the

court, and commentary have spread from South Africa to the world at

large. The court case and the issues behind it are now regularly

reported on by international news services including the Associated

Press and Reuters and by influential newspapers like the Guardian. A

May 30, 2005 search of keywords " matthias rath " at news.google.com

resulted in 335 news articles.

 

Because Rath has interests in various companies that sell nutritional

supplements in several countries, he is often identified as a "

vitamin salesman " in much of the coverage.

 

 

 

Peter Piot, M.D.

UNAIDS Executive Director

Photo © WHO/P. Virot

Used with permission.

 

The United Nations, including the WHO, UNICEF, and UNAIDS, Harvard

University, news (the news site of a prestigious medical

journal), and numerous other Establishment interests have all lined up

to criticize Rath. On May 26, the UN Integrated Regional Information

Networks reported " Anyone who claims vitamins can cure or treat

HIV/AIDS is a 'charlatan', UNAIDS executive director Peter Piot told a

press conference in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Wednesday. Reacting

to questions about vitamins proponent Matthias Rath, Piot said it was

unfortunate that there would always be people who tried to make money

out of the misery and suffering of others. " (Readers who are aware of

the exorbitant profits of the international drug industry over the

decades may find some irony in Piot's comment.) On May 13, the same UN

source reported " AIDS denialists and the Traditional Healers

Organization have come out in support of Rath, going so far as to

stage protests and distribute pamphlets and posters in Khayelitsha and

other townships in the Western Cape. " In fact, Rath appears to enjoy

considerable support at the grassroots in South Africa and elsewhere.

 

 

 

Dr. Manto Tshabalala-Msimang

South African Minister of Health (1999 - present)

Source: South African History Online

 

At policy levels, on April 15, 2005, Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report

noted that " South African Health Minister [Dr.] Manto

Tshabalala-Msimang on Tuesday [April 12] defended the Santa Clara,

Calif.-based Dr. Rath Health Foundation, which recently ran

advertisements stating that vitamins and nutrition therapy alone could

prevent AIDS-related deaths, South Africa's Business Day/AllAfrica.com

reports. " Tshabalala-Msimang has also been a members of the South

African Parliament since 1994. " Tshabalala-Msimang -- speaking in

Durban, where she is attending the World Health Organization meeting

on nutrition and HIV/AIDS -- said the group supports the South African

government's stance on the 'importance of micronutrients in combating

HIV/AIDS,' according to Business Day/AllAfrica.com (Kahn, Business

Day/AllAfrica.com, 4/13). . . Tshabalala-Msimang agreed that

HIV-positive South Africans have been subject to 'a confusing chorus

of medical claims' from businesses selling nutritional supplements and

vitamins, according to Business Day/AllAfrica.com. 'If you eat

properly, you can delay the onset of AIDS -- in some cases

indefinitely,' Tshabalala-Msimang said, adding, 'As you know, once you

start (taking antiretroviral medicines), you are on them for life. If

you can delay starting, it's all the better in my view'

(BusinessDay/AllAfrica.com, 4/13). "

 

In a column generally sympathetic to Rath titled " AIDS orthodoxy

hobbles fight against disease " published May 27, 2005 in Business Day

(South Africa), attorney Christine Qunta writes " There is. . . the

prevailing orthodoxy in the popular media that stifles the exploration

of complementary strategies to combat the disease [AIDS]. It is an

orthodoxy that stifles any view that does not conform to the

'official' or 'sanctioned' one. Like the issue of Zimbabwe, no dissent

is tolerated. The few people brave enough to advance a different

perspective are attacked in ways that are often quite vicious. This

intolerance flourishes even as journalists demand freedom of speech

for themselves. A clearer case of censorship one has yet to find. . .

 

" But it is the arrival of Matthias Rath that has sent the TAC into a

frenzy which is quite frightening. Rath is loud, forceful and uses

quite intemperate language in his advertisements. In this way there is

a similarity between Rath and the TAC. It is a case of two extremists

meeting each other and, were the issues not so grave, it would be

amusing to watch them slug it out. In the midst of all the noise

around him, Rath makes a perfectly valid point regarding the value of

vitamins and the role they can play in improving the health of AIDS

patients. Whether vitamins can cure AIDS is, of course, something that

must be proved scientifically. However, one does not have to be a

medical doctor or a scientist to know the necessity of good nutrition

and healthy living for one's body to fight off disease. A campaign

that promotes antiretrovirals to the exclusion of all other methods is

simply not credible. "

 

To be continued .

 

 

 

For more information,

 

Dr Rath ad earns the wrath of TAC

Mail & Guardian December 17, 2004

 

Vitriolic Dr Rath attacks TAC

Mail & Guardian March 18, 2005

 

Mbeki dismisses Rath

Mail & Guardian March 25, 2005

 

UN condemns Rath's HIV/Aids advertisements

Mail & Guardian April 4, 2005

 

TAC threatens action against Rath

Mail & Guardian April 18, 2005

 

Manto 'doesn't recall' endorsing Rath

Mail & Guardian May 5, 2005

 

Harvard researchers condemn Rath

Mail & Guardian May 10, 2005

 

Govt probes vitamin man Rath

Mail & Guardian May 11, 2005

 

Not in our name, say UN bodies

Mail & Guardian May 13, 2005

 

Protest disrupts TAC, Rath court hearing

Mail & Guardian May 13, 2005

 

'Vitamins are no cure or treatment for Aids'

Mail & Guardian May 25, 2005

 

Vitamin debate rages before court

Mail & Guardian May 26, 2005

 

Vitamin entrepreneur Rath in court;

Call for open debate on Aids drugs

The Mercury May 27, 2005

 

 

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