South African court bans AIDS vitamin trials

The Cape High Court ruled against German physician MatthiasRath and U.S. doctor David Rasnick, a former member of Mbeki'sAIDS advisory council, in response to a case brought by thelobby group Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and the SouthAfrican Medical Association (SAMA).

The two bodies accused Rath of conducting illegal clinicaltrials among poor blacks and profiteering by selling anddistributing unregistered vitamin treatments among poorcommunities.

"It is declared that the clinical trials conducted in SouthAfrica ... are unlawful," Cape High Court Judge Dumisani Zondisaid in his ruling.

South Africa has one of the world's highest incidences ofHIV, with an estimated 500,000 people infected each year. About1,000 die every day from AIDS-related illnesses.

Rath and his Rath Foundation promote vitamin pills andmicronutrients, mainly minerals such as iron or iodine, thatthey say can reverse the course of HIV/AIDS.

Critics say Rath's work has led to unnecessary deaths whenHIV-positive people stopped using life-saving anti-retroviraldrugs.

In court papers, TAC and SAMA accused the South Africangovernment of not doing enough to stop Rath and failing in itsconstitutional and statutory duty of care to the public.

Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, who has herselfcourted controversy by advocating garlic and beetroot insteadof anti-retroviral drugs, denied the allegations.

Tshabalala-Msimang and a senior Health Ministry officialargued before the court that Rath's products were not reallymedicines but foodstuffs that were outside the MedicinesControl Council's regulatory scope.

The court said on Friday that Rath and Rasnick, two of 12people mentioned in the suit, would be prohibited fromconducting unlawful clinical trials in South Africa or frompublishing advertisements for their products.

(Reporting by Wendell Roelf; editing by Andrew Dobbie)