Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

HIV denialist to speak at ESF

Psyduck | 21.09.2008 07:56 | Bio-technology | Gender | Health

The 'Dr Rath Health Foundation', who will today join a workshop at the European Social Forum, have been involved in spreading deadly misinformation about medication for HIV, and promoting other ineffective treatments for serious illness, sometimes with fatal consequences.

The 'Dr Rath Health Foundation' being allowed to run a workshop at ESF is an insult to the patient advocacy campaigns who helped develop effective HIV medications, the medical organisations who work to provide effective treatment for disadvantaged people internationally, and campaigning organisations who work for the removal of economic and organisational barriers to getting life-prolonging treatments to people who need them. Most of all it is an insult to the 75% of adults and 90% of children who don't have access to the treatment which can prolong life by decades.

The 'Dr Rath Health Foundation' should not be able to use the ESF as a platform to promote deadly and distracting misinformation which can only delay getting real treatment to those who need it.

Dr Ben Goldacre, a medical doctor & journalist who with the Guardian newspaper recently won a libel case exposing the activities of the 'Dr Rath Health Foundation' in South Africa, gave the following statement:

'Matthias Rath is a businessman and the head of a large international food supplement pill empire who has campaigned, tragically with some success, to hinder the use of antiretroviral drugs for Aids in Africa. This strikes me as a very simple unambiguously bad thing to do.

He has used legal action repeatedly to stifle criticism of his activities, suing not just me and the Guardian (without success) but also - shamefully - sued organisations who are fighting desperately to save lives in Africa, such as Medecins Sans Frontiere and the Treatment Action Campaign. They do not need the distraction.

He has performed illegal clinical trials, and denounced antiretroviral treatment as ineffective and dangerous while promoting vitamin pills as the answer to the Aids epidemic. He promoted the activities of his previous right-hand man Anthony Brink when he made vile and bizarre demands for violence against the heroic Aids campaigner Zackie Achmat, who has fought the drug companies and his own government to improve access to effective medication in South Africa. Anthony Brink also boasts that he introduced Thabo Mbeki to Aids denialism. If true then this was an act with serious consequences.

It is vitally important to think critically about the abysmal record of the pharmaceutical companies in Africa, but the reality is that antiretroviral drugs are effective, and we should be seeking to improve safe access to them around the world, not hinder it as Matthias Rath has campaigned tirelessly to do. The notion of a businessman such as Matthias Rath speaking at a global activists' meeting fills me with horror and despair.'

Further information:

The workshop where the 'Dr Rath foundation' is due to speak:  http://www.esf2008.org/registrations/merged/external-internal-health-the-natural-way
South Africa Treatment Action Campaign:  http://www.tac.org.za/community/rath
Libel case recently won by the Guardian newspaper, allowing Dr Rath's activities to be exposed:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/matthiasrath

Background on access to effective treatment for HIV:
 http://www.stopaidscampaign.org.uk/
 http://www.medsin.org/campaigns/uaem
 http://www.accessmed-msf.org/
 http://www.who.int/hiv/mediacentre/en/

Psyduck

Comments

Display the following 6 comments

  1. Yes.. but — Dr No
  2. dear psyduck, birds of a feather doth flock & shit together. — O As If ( = iosaf )
  3. NO, Dr No. — Scaramouche
  4. Distraction at best — Psyduck
  5. yeah but no but.. — Dr No
  6. Which other pill peddler would get invited to the ESF? — Scaramouche
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech