Mbeki dismisses "Durban declaration"

British Medical Journal, July 8, 2000 by Pat Sidley

Over 5000 scientists from around the world have signed a declaration saying that AIDS is caused by HIV. In the journal Nature the scientists make clear that the declaration is a direct response to the debate in South Africa sparked by its president, Thabo Mbeki, about HIV and whether or not it causes AIDS. Scientists fear that the debate will raise doubts and result in the loss of many lives.

The timing of the declaration is crucial. It comes in the week before the Durban AIDS 2000 conference opens and follows the release of alarming statistics by UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS. It also arrives at the moment when President Mbeki's AIDS Advisory Panel (with many scientists who doubt that HIV leads to AIDS) has reconvened in Johannesburg to advise the president on the pandemic.

The declaration makes several points to explain why the debate is no longer needed and why it should not have been reopened. Among these points are:

* Patients with AIDS, regardless of where they live, are infected with HIV

* People who receive blood or blood products contaminated with HIV develop AIDS, whereas those who receive untainted or screened blood do not

* Drugs that block HIV replication in the test tube also reduce virus load in people and delay progression to AIDS. Where available, treatment has reduced AIDS mortality by more than 80%

* If not treated, people with HIV show signs of AIDS within 5-10 years.

The declaration has a devastating message at the end: "There is no end in sight to the AIDS pandemic." It says too that "reason, solidarity, political will, and courage" are needed.

It has provoked an astonishing response from President Mbeki's spokesman, Parks Mankahlana, who said it belonged in a dustbin. He had earlier pleaded for the Durban 2000 conference not to become another Mbeki-bashing episode.

Local scientists at the advisory panel meeting reported pressure from the government to withdraw their signatures from the Durban declaration.