This week, South African health minister Barbara Hogan got her country up to speed with the rest of the world with one statement: “We know that HIV causes AIDS” [Time]. The country’s new health minister has been in office for less than a month, but she has already broken with the health policies of the previous government, which questioned the scientific consensus on HIV and AIDS, and discouraged the use of life-saving AIDS drugs.
Her pronouncement at an international AIDS vaccine conference marked the official end to 10 years of denial about the link between HIV and AIDS by former President Thabo Mbeki and his health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang. Activists also accused Tshabalala-Msimang of spreading confusion about AIDS through her public mistrust of antiretroviral medicines and promotion of nutritional remedies such as garlic, beetroot, lemon, olive oil and the African potato [AP]. Tshabalala-Msimang earned the nickname “Dr. Beetroot” from frustrated activists for her recommendations.
