South African church official says German doctor misleading on AIDS

Published: 2005-07-14

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (CNS) -- A German doctor who is promoting a vitamin therapy regimen to South Africans with AIDS is "misleading uninformed people," said a South African church official. German Dr. Matthias Rath claims that life-prolonging antiretroviral drugs are toxic and that AIDS can be better treated through multivitamins he sells. He has been financing a high-profile media campaign attacking the anti-AIDS medication. Rath's campaign is dangerous to South Africans infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, said Dominican Sister Alison Munro, who heads the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference AIDS unit. "He is disputing scientific facts and misleading uninformed people," Sister Munro said.

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