2 posts tagged “manto tshabalala-msimang”
When a country's health minister consults witchdoctors, surely not all is well with the nation.
Health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang (she who believes AIDS can be fought with garlic and beetroot rather than antiretroviral drugs), says she will continue to consult "traditional healers" (the PC name for witchdoctors) to combat AIDS.
In this day of modern medical science, why must the people of South Africa be burdened with a quack who refuses to emerge from the Dark Ages? I propose that in this banana republic of ours, we change the name of her post to Minister of Alchemy.
That, at least, would be honest.
Zackie Achmat, the chairman of Treatment Action Campaign, has reportedly called directly on the African National Congress (ANC) to back his appeal to have South African health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang to be fired.
Achmat's call should certainly be heeded. The minister's attitude towards the treatment of HIV/AIDS is dangerous and her commitment to pursuing "African traditional medicine" as a method of treatment plunges the country's official AIDS policy into the Dark Ages and places state treament of the disease on a par with superstition and witchcraft.
But, to bring it closer to the human level, according to the TAC, there are 900 AIDS-related deaths in South Africa every day. And while these people are dying, the minister is scratching for herbs and roots. It's no wonder that Stephen Lewis, who is the United Nations' special envoy for Aids in Africa, has referred to South Africa's AIDS programme as "lunatic fringe" policies.
So far, however, government has refused to act against the misnamed health minister, and she has steadfastly refused to resign.
Fortunately, there are exceptionally competent scientists in South Africa at the National Institute of Communicable Diseases, the universities and others who are doing first-class research in the fight against AIDS.
Their fight is a difficult one, for not only are they engaged in fighting a dreadful plague, but they are also having to face colleagues at international conferences and fight against the negative reputation and ridicule the country is earning thanks to its "health" minister.
