Discredited doctor's 'cure' for Aids ignites life-and-death struggle in So

[emad]

Sarah Boseley
Saturday May 14, 2005
The Guardian

Patricia Masinga, 36, had known she had HIV for about 10 years. She worked for an Aids organisation, so when, inevitably, she began to get sick, she was well placed to get treatment, and her youth and two children gave her every reason to fight to stay alive.

But even among educated, professional women such as Patricia, uncertainty and confusion about the safety of Aids drugs has started to take hold in South Africa. She opted for a diet of garlic and lemon instead. A month ago, she died.


Doctors and campaigners who have been struggling to increase the availability of Aids drugs to the 5 million HIV-infected people in South Africa are dismayed by the activities of a German-born doctor, Matthias Rath, who has reignited a life-and-death struggle in South Africa.

Dr Rath denounces Aids drugs and claims that all those who promote them are the paid lackeys of western drug companies. Vitamins, not drugs, are the cure for Aids - and cancer and diabetes too for that matter - he says, and there are those in the South African government who appear to give him credence.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/southafrica/story/0,13262,1483820,00.html

[EST]

1. Ugh!

The inability to accept reality dooms so many.

[preciousdove]

2. Drug companies are amoral

Glaxco-Wellcome knew that the Osp-A surface protein that they based their LymeRix vaccine on caused severe incurable autoimmune arthritis in the joints of at least 20% of the population with certain gene markers, the same people who get the sickest with the disease. At least two other vaccine's based on other nonreactive proteins were developed but enough money was spread around (Mayo got funds to develop the post LymeRix Elisa tests) that they were allowed to market the doomed vaccine. Gov Pataki lost the World Headquarters of Glaxco-Wellcome because he could not control patients and clinical researcher physicians from campaigning against the vaccine. A "hit list" of 17 doctors was created. Dr Oren's went down, Dr Burascanno is under investigation as the battle went to the NY legislature. LDA and LDF educated each person there about the need to reform the OMPC which had no due process. The bill was passed unanimously and vetoed at the last minute during the recess.

Doctors could not know what they were being investigated before their hearing but had to prepare a defense and they could not know who their accusers were. The accusers were the insurance companies who had decided in 1993 that Lyme was too expensive and so they used the mental health model of attempting to delay and prevent treatment until people were on government health programs generally 2-5 years. They did this through the insurance company front of the American Lyme Disease Association who bought Dr Steere early in his career to be the darling of Lyme and directed his research, money that still flows from the CDC even today. Dr Steere is a Rheumatologist, not an infectious disease specialist and has totally dismissed neurological and psychiatric symptoms of Lyme. Then to further discredit the Lyme advocacy movement Dr Steere's handlers put out a phony story that Dr Steere was being stalked by crazies who thought they had Lyme Disease. It also kept him from networking with any prominent legitimate Lyme groups.

The result is a huge increase in "like" diseases, MS, ALS, Alzheimer's, autism, arthritis, endocrine diseases and syndromes, cardiac problems (26 to date attributed to Lyme), anorexia, IBS etc, the debilitated body is prone to cancer and other fatal diseases that would be treated if the hidden Lyme were also treated but in about in all states it is a problem and in Minnesota, land of Mayo it is a disgrace.

Drug reps told physicians here in Minnesota that the vaccine was perfectly safe, to give it to Lyme patients to "cure them" with fatal results until we were able to stop them. I still get calls from people who were totally healthy until they got the shot. They have been sent everywhere for diagnosis and get nowhere when became totally debilitated in a short period of time. The FDA allowed Glaxco to pull the vaccine without ruling on this. Those people have no hope of recovery, nobody who can treat them and no chance at tort relief.

Glaxco expected to vaccinate everyone in America and around the world and make billions. Not a bad return for a disease that they have been allowed to say can be cured with one antibiotic pill.

[d.l.Green]

10. And don't forget the foster kids they've been using as guinea pigs for

years with "aids" drugs...:mad:

[d.l.Green]

3. This article is full of obvious lies and deceit. I posted this last night

and for some reason it was pulled. I think another poster who disagreed with my perception complained to the administrator saying I was giving "medical advice". I truly thought it was pulled because this isn't really breaking news. It would be nice to know...

Look at the way the article is written. Why did this woman die? No details are offered. It infers that Dr. Rath recommended her lemon and garlic diet which is false- he only suggested that nutrition was the way to "cure" the ailments connected to this "disease". They go on to say that "there are those in the South African government who appear to give him credence." That's journalism? "Appear to give him credence"? I bet you can find people on all sides of an issue everywhere. In an article such as this without real specific information about WHO gives this doctor credence the information itself isn't very credible. However it is true that the government has rightfully QUESTIONED the premise of "hiv/aids"- is that not their responsibility?

It's also interesting how they prejudice judgment on this doctor by referring to his paid ads in the press. This is one person, with a finite budget. What about the billions of dollars the drug companies pump into the media? Then this doctor is referred to as "dangerous". He sure is, he's dangerous to the high profits of a very questionable medical industrial complex. However, his arguments are disregarded or labeled "dangerous" and yet this article fails to point out that there are thousands of doctors throughout the world who also don't agree with the "hiv/aids" theory. Since when are alternative viewpoints negated when there has been no success on the drug end and these viewpoints have survived as long or longer than this yet-to-be proven hypothesis?

There are many basic questions that have never been answered about this "disease" yet there are many drugs that are thrust on "hiv"-positive people. The "virus" itself has never been isolated, yet a positive test causes doctors to prescribe a drug regimen that causes horrible and, in my mind, unnecessary side effects- even death. "The drugs certainly worked but the patient died"- whatever....

[union_maid]

4. Getting drugs to people in Africa is difficult and expensive

The South African government doesn't want to spend the money. It would love to have people believe that the drug therapies are suspect and that other, cheaper treatments can be effective. They can't. Not against the virus itself. Good nutrition and general healthcare is vital for people living with HIV/AIDS but for the most part, they need drug therapy to prolong life life and prevent perinatal infection.

Where did you learn that there's been no success on the drug front? There's no cure or vaccine, but people live longer without developing full blown AIDS, pregnant women don't have to pass the virus to their children and in general things are very different than they were a generation ago.

[LeftyMom]

5. "desease?"

Are you suggesting that my uncle just fell over of natural causes? It wasn't the meds that killed him, he was diagnosed with, and very sick from, AIDS before AZT became availible.

There are people on this board with AIDS and others who've lost loved ones to the disease. I don't care if you question the disease process as currently understood, but that AIDS is a disease is a fact (please see the definition of disease, below) and it's insensitive and insulting to suggest otherwise.

dis·ease Audio pronunciation of "disease" ( P ) Pronunciation Key (d-zz)
n.

1. A pathological condition of a part, organ, or system of an organism resulting from various causes, such as infection, genetic defect, or environmental stress, and characterized by an identifiable group of signs or symptoms.
2. A condition or tendency, as of society, regarded as abnormal and harmful.
3. Obsolete. Lack of ease; trouble.

syn·drome Audio pronunciation of "syndrome" ( P ) Pronunciation Key (sndrm)
n.

1. A group of symptoms that collectively indicate or characterize a disease, psychological disorder, or other abnormal condition.
2.
1. A complex of symptoms indicating the existence of an undesirable condition or quality.
2. A distinctive or characteristic pattern of behavior: the syndrome of conspicuous consumption in wealthy suburbs.

[megatherium]

6. The scientific evidence that HIV is the cause of AIDS:

Please see http://www.niaid.nih.gov/publications/hivaids/hivaids.htm for an extremely detailed and persuasive summary of the evidence that HIV is the cause of AIDS.

Advocating controversial theories such as AIDS/HIV denialism isn't "practicing medicine"; but I hope people talk to their physicians before making medical decisions based on controversial theories, especially theories with little support in the medical/scientific community.

[d.l.Green]

7. Yup, just give up responsibility for your health to "your" physician,

someone who makes money dispensing drugs. Don't dare do any research yourself, especially on the evil internet, you might get confused and actually make the "wrong" decision. And pay no attention to those thousands of doctors who don't believe the hype(http://www.virusmyth.net/aids/group.htm), there are quacks in every profession. Finally do NOT take the advice of non-medical people, even though they may have witnessed friends get well when they changed their lifestyles and paid attention to their health (ie, stopped partying and eating crap), they're hallucinating and not drinking enough koolaid...
:sarcasm:

[megatherium]

8. Who said anything about not doing your own research?

Believe me, I've read a lot about AIDS. An awful lot: I'm gay and I've lost friends to this disease. I am scientifically literate (PhD in mathematics). I've read the denialist claims. I've read the mainstream research. I'm in my 40s, I've been following the AIDS epidemic closely since 1982. I read about all the theories as they were proposed back then. None of them proved correct -- HIV without any cofactors is the cause of AIDS.

Perhaps you should please do some more research. That AIDS myth website looks pretty stale to me. The list of names there looked like it hadn't been updated in ten years.

Best wishes,

megatherium

[d.l.Green]

9. This thread is about the article. I get the impression from the wording

and the deliberate lack of details that it's a snow job. When a doctor feels that nutrition is the key to health and avoidance of disease, it always seems like they're attacked as some quack. Not surprisingly, the media, that gets much money from the medical industrial complex, conveniently neglects to give any credence to the simple concept that nutrition, not drugs, is in most cases the cure for disease. Interestingly no medical doctors are trained to prevent disease, only negate symptoms. Nor are they given the tools to attempt to solve a health problem with nutrition. Because of this there are not any studies that compare the results of this concept versus the curing nature of toxic drugs. And there never will be as long as the drug companies and the government agencies that employ past and future industry workers are the ones paying for the studies.

I too have read extensively on this subject, am in my mid 40's, lived in NYC(West Village) from 1979 to 1986, am gay and lived through this invented crisis with the same fear that most people did at the time. I was no loner but didn't know anyone personally who became ill until 1993. I was so convinced that every year I religiously took the test and sweated out the two week wait for the results. Thankfully I was never positive so I sidestepped being killed by the drugs. And when an old friend of mine showed up at the Games in '94 with this cockamamie story about there being no such thing as "aids" I though he had lost his mind and was in complete denial. I started reading the alternative theories, met many who had gotten off the drugs and the health destroying partying lifestyle and became incredibly healthy and then went on to see my closest friends die from the drugs. It was obvious and it was painful. But since giving talks on this and watching other friends since drop the drugs completely, I have never been more convinced. My life partner dropped the drugs 2 years ago and became a vegan. He's regained control of his life, is healthier than most people I know and he's become very muscular on a natural regimen.

The link I provided may have seemed like a stale page, but I can just imagine like me, many have moved on from trying to fight a losing battle of convincing others. It's just become too ingrained for most people to question. Just the idea of the ramifications of there actually being a different reality is understandably too much for most people to handle emotionally, especially those of us who have lived through our bitter- and unnecessary- losses. But I've witnessed both sides first hand and am thoroughly comfortable with the conclusions I've come to. Dig a little and you will find many others like me...

[megatherium]

11. I'm glad to hear you and your partner are well.

I'm also healthy, HIV- (for what's that worth), and celibate, at least until I find my life-partner. And I do agree with you that nutrition and a healthy lifestyle are terribly important. I'm not veggie but I try to eat low fat and organic, and I also am a runner. If AIDS is not caused by a single sexually transmissible pathogen, there are certainly a variety of other unpleasant diseases that are.

Concerning the article, you might be right to suspect chicanery; it certainly has a slant. But it may be nothing more than a reporter who takes it for granted that HIV causes AIDS, and who therefore is happy to report what he is told (that Dr. Rath is crooked, etc). I believe it was Mark Twain who said that a reporter can do research and investigate, or he can simply repeat what people tell him, but both approaches pay the same.