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AIDS experts want health minister's blood

    JOHANNESBURG

    More than 60 international HIV/AIDS researchers are calling for the immediate resignation of South African Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang.

    Treatment Action Campaign, a local AIDS lobby group, told the South African Broadcasting Corporation that a letter with 81 signatories, sent to President Thabo Mbeki earlier this week, described the minister's health policies as "ineffective and immoral".

    Tshabalala-Msimang has consistently drawn international criticism for supporting the views of well-known AIDS dissidents, and her controversial promotion of garlic, beetroot and the African potato as effective means of treating HIV-positive people.

    The letter stated that antiretroviral drugs were the only medicines clinically proven to effectively treat AIDS.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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