The AIDS Law Unit of the Legal Assistance Centre is concerned that these adverts will do irreparable harm to the efforts of the Namibian Government and their partners in civil society to combat the spread of HIV, and to treat those who are already infected with HIV, and, as such, constitute a grave threat to our nation.

The advertisement, which is framed as a reprint of an article in the New York Times, but it is, in fact, an advertisement for Dr Rath's vitamin products, is not unknown in Southern Africa, and has already been at the centre of considerable controversy in the region.

Dr Rath's advertising campaign recently made international headlines when the Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa lodged a complaint with the Advertising Authority of South Africa (ASASA) against similar advertisements that were run in South African Newspapers.

ASASA ruled that the advertisements made claims that were unsubstantiated and should be withdrawn from all newspapers.

In response of the Rath Foundation accused TAC being "storm troopers" of the international pharmaceutical cartel.

To anyone familiar with the work of TAC, and their opposition to the drug pricing strategies of international pharmaceutical companies, this claim is patently ridiculous and gives some insight into the sort of malicious tactics that the Rath Foundation employs.

It is now the subject of a defamation suit brought by the TAC against The Rath Foundation.

The ASASA ruling echoes similar rulings against the Rath Foundation in the UK, North America, and Europe.

In the UK, the British Advertising Standards Authority ordered Rath to withdraw his advertisements for his so-called vitamin treatments, because the claims that he made for them were found to be unsubstantiated and misleading.

In similar vein, Rath has been condemned for spreading false and misleading information through this advertising campaign by the United States' Food and Drug Administration, the South African Medical Association, the Southern African HIV Clinicians Society, UNAIDS, WHO and UNICEF.

The United Nations agencies, in a statement released prior to a technical consultation in Durban, condemned "the irresponsible linking of [their] names to claims that vitamins and nutrition therapy alone can prevent AIDS deaths" Rath had, falsely, claimed to be part of the technical consultation, and had even gone so far as to suggest that UNAIDS, WHO and UNICEF endorsed his views on antiretrovirals.

In a clear reference to Rath, they went on to say that "the UN condemns irresponsible attacks on antiretroviral therapy.

A recent advertising campaign is touting the benefits of vitamin therapy above antiretroviral therapy and claiming that antiretroviral therapy is toxic.

These advertisements are wrong and misleading."

It should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with Rath's tactics that these agencies and institutions have now also been put on Rath's list of stooges and dupes to the pharmaceutical cartel.

Rath's claims about the scientific credentials of his products have also been called into question on several occasions.

The Harvard School of Public Health has strongly condemned Rath's distortions of scientific studies to promote the sales of his vitamins.

In a press release published on their website, Harvard says: "Published statements in the United States and South Africa by businessman Matthias Rath, whose company Matthias Rath Inc.

sells vitamin formulas, state that antiretroviral therapy (ART) 'severely damage[s] all cells in the body--including white blood cells--thereby not improving but rather worsening immune deficiencies and expanding the AIDS epidemic.' These statements promote vitamins as superior to ART in the treatment of HIV/AIDS.

Rath has attempted to support his claims with findings from Harvard School of Public Health research in Tanzania.

We condemn these irresponsible and misleading statements as in our view they deliberately misinterpret findings from our studies to advocate against the scale up of antiretroviral therapy.

Rath also claims that his vitamins can treat cancer, but The Swiss Study Group for Complementary and Alternative Methods in Cancer, has also examined his claims and found no proof that any of Rath's products have any impact upon human cancer.

Similarly, a British Medical Journal article has also examined the claims made about one of Rath's products and found no evidence to support them.

In an incident that should give all who attach any credence to Rath's claims pause for thought, it has emerged that Rath is being investigated in Germany in connection with the death of a boy.

The boy, who had cancer, was taken off chemotherapy and treated by Rath with multivitamins, with fatal results.

Rath, critics say, cynically used the boy to market his medicines.

In his public statements, Rath projects himself as a humanitarian who offers his treatments to the world out of a sense of altruism.

In the advertisement published by The Namibian, for example, Rath claims that: "In contrast to the pharmaceutical industry, we offer our research findings and scientific expertise to the world, free of charge..."

In fact, Rath is a multimillionaire vitamin salesman with as much interest in putting profit before human lives as the pharmaceutical industry that he criticises.

Sources indicate that his basic vitamin tablets cost $29.95 (+/-R180) per month on the internet, with more expensive combinations of tablets costing up to R3 500 per month.

Rath's advertisements exploit the fears of people living with HIV, in order to turn a profit.

He posits a false dichotomy between nutrition and antiretroviral treatment, and between "non-toxic" vitamin treatments and "toxic" antiretrovirals.

This, again, is a distortion.

Advocates for antiretroviral treatment recognise the benefits of vitamin and nutritional supplements, and we know that vitamins do indeed slow down the progression of HIV to AIDS.

It is for this reason that many treatment providers, such as Medicines Sans Frontieres (MSF), provide food packages and vitamin supplements to their patients.

Toxicity, too, is also well understood by the scientific community and treatment advocates, and successful strategies have existed for some time now, and new ones are constantly being developed, to deal with the potential danger of taking ARV's incorrectly.

The people of Namibia are engaged in a life-or-death struggle against poverty, ignorance and disease, and we cannot be distracted by the lies and greed of those who seek to profit from the misery of our people.

It is simply irresponsible and unethical to tell people who require ARVs in order to stay alive, that they should abandon treatment and use vitamins alone to fight HIV.

Not only does this harm individual patients, but it also sows a dangerous confusion in the minds of people living with HIV, decision makers and the general public.

This is something that we cannot afford, and will not countenance.

Delme Cupido
Coordinator, AIDS Law Unit
Legal Assistance Centre

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