Group aims to silence claims that vitamins are better than drugs for A
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《英国医生杂志》
South Africa's leading AIDS activism group is back in court using its weapon of choice, the law, in its fight for the adequate provision of treatment to South Africa's five million people who are HIV positive.
The group is suing a manufacturer of vitamins, who has fallen foul of regulators in the United Kingdom and the United States, to stop him claiming that his vitamins are more effective than antiretroviral drugs for people with AIDS. They also want him to stop claiming that antiretroviral drugs are too toxic for people with AIDS to take.
The group, Treatment Action Campaign, is claiming damages against the vitamin manufacturer for his assertion that the group is a front for the drug industry. The case is expected to last several months.
The vitamin manufacturer, Matthias Rath, has run large advertising campaigns in South African newspapers as well as in the US telling people with AIDS that his vitamins would be better for them than products made by drug companies.
Dr Rath's campaign in South Africa has been supported by several well known dissenters on AIDS treatment and by the country's health minister, Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang. Treatment Action Campaign has threatened legal action against the health department and the Medicines Control Council (South Africa's drugs regulatory body) for not taking action against Dr Rath for alleged violations of the law concerning the marketing of medicines. But subsequently both bodies have announced that they will be investigating his operations in South Africa.
Dr Rath has been stopped by the South African Advertising Standards Authority from issuing advertisements containing claims that the authority found could not be supported by evidence. The authority's decision followed a similar ruling by the UK's Advertising Standards Authority banning as misleading certain advertisements issued by Dr Rath in the UK.
Ralf Langner, the Rath Foundation's spokesman, said, however, that the Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa had failed to read the foundation's dossier in which scientific research backing its views was documented.
He said that the foundation did not sell its products or any others in South Africa but rather was in the country to educate the public on the virtues of vitamins and about the toxicity of antiretrovirals. He said that the use of vitamins in stalling the onset of AIDS was well known.
He added that the substantial influence of large pharmaceutical manufacturers was the reason why the foundation's views did not result in vitamins being used adequately to prevent the symptoms of AIDS. " challenges a multibillion dollar industry," Mr Langner told the BMJ.
Harvard School of Public Health has also taken steps to disassociate itself from Dr Rath's claims, stating that he has misinterpreted the results of a study about the relationship between vitamins and HIV/AIDS that the school had undertaken elsewhere in Africa.(Pat Sidley)
The group is suing a manufacturer of vitamins, who has fallen foul of regulators in the United Kingdom and the United States, to stop him claiming that his vitamins are more effective than antiretroviral drugs for people with AIDS. They also want him to stop claiming that antiretroviral drugs are too toxic for people with AIDS to take.
The group, Treatment Action Campaign, is claiming damages against the vitamin manufacturer for his assertion that the group is a front for the drug industry. The case is expected to last several months.
The vitamin manufacturer, Matthias Rath, has run large advertising campaigns in South African newspapers as well as in the US telling people with AIDS that his vitamins would be better for them than products made by drug companies.
Dr Rath's campaign in South Africa has been supported by several well known dissenters on AIDS treatment and by the country's health minister, Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang. Treatment Action Campaign has threatened legal action against the health department and the Medicines Control Council (South Africa's drugs regulatory body) for not taking action against Dr Rath for alleged violations of the law concerning the marketing of medicines. But subsequently both bodies have announced that they will be investigating his operations in South Africa.
Dr Rath has been stopped by the South African Advertising Standards Authority from issuing advertisements containing claims that the authority found could not be supported by evidence. The authority's decision followed a similar ruling by the UK's Advertising Standards Authority banning as misleading certain advertisements issued by Dr Rath in the UK.
Ralf Langner, the Rath Foundation's spokesman, said, however, that the Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa had failed to read the foundation's dossier in which scientific research backing its views was documented.
He said that the foundation did not sell its products or any others in South Africa but rather was in the country to educate the public on the virtues of vitamins and about the toxicity of antiretrovirals. He said that the use of vitamins in stalling the onset of AIDS was well known.
He added that the substantial influence of large pharmaceutical manufacturers was the reason why the foundation's views did not result in vitamins being used adequately to prevent the symptoms of AIDS. " challenges a multibillion dollar industry," Mr Langner told the BMJ.
Harvard School of Public Health has also taken steps to disassociate itself from Dr Rath's claims, stating that he has misinterpreted the results of a study about the relationship between vitamins and HIV/AIDS that the school had undertaken elsewhere in Africa.(Pat Sidley)