Harsh Proof

Withholding HIV treatments led to the death of 330,000 people in South Africa as the result of AIDs denialist policies according to a new report which proves the benefits of treatment. “In a paper just published online in Springer’s journal AIDS and Behavior, Professor Myron Essex and Dr. Pride Chigwedere, from the Harvard School of Public Health AIDS Initiative in the US, provide additional proof that withholding HIV treatments with proven benefits led to the death of 330,000 people in South Africa as the result of AIDS denialist policies. They also show that the harm has not been reversed and highlight that when denialism enters public health practice, as in South Africa, the consequences are disastrous. AIDS denialists refute that HIV causes AIDS, that antiretroviral drugs are useful, and lastly, that millions of people worldwide have died from AIDS. However, it is estimated that from 2000 to 2005, at least 330,000 South Africans died prematurely and 35,000 babies were infected with HIV as a result of former president Thabo Mbeki’s decision to withhold antiretroviral drugs, based on advice from American AIDS denialists.”