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THE positive results of treating people with anti-retrovirals such as AZT is overwhelming, renowned American scientist Dr David Ho told the 13th International Aids Conference in Durban on Tuesday.
Ho said he failed to understand why President Thabo Mbeki did not want to give AZT to pregnant women to prevent the disease being transmitted to their unborn babies. "What could be worse than death from Aids? Not giving people life-saving medication," Ho said.
Ho is the scientific director and chief executive officer at the Aaron Diamond Aids Research Centre at the Rockerfeller University in New York. He has done ground-breaking work on the effects of anti-retrovirals on Aids patients and has come to the conclusion that the results are overwhelmingly in favour of the drugs.
Mbeki said there was not enough evidence about the toxicity and after-effects of AZT to give it to pregnant women dependent on the public health system. "Yes, there are side effects, but the balance of the equation is so clearly positive," Ho said.
The decision not to make the drug available was a "mistake from a humanistic perspective". Even from an economic perspective, it made sense to treat pregnant mothers with the drug, he said. "It is cheaper to have healthy babies, than to give medical treatment to HIV-positive babies."
In this regard he said the government's argument that the drugs were too expensive did not hold water as it was economically wise to prevent illnesses rather than treat them. Some 5000 HIV-positive babies are born in South Africa every month. Adding his voice to condemn revisionist theories that HIV did not cause Aids, Ho said there was an enormous volume of data saying that HIV did cause Aids.
This was clearly demonstrated by the drop in Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome mortality rates when drugs targeting the Human Immuno-DeficiencyVirus, were administered.
"This is what changed the industrialised world." Ho said those who failed to manage the epidemic properly would be judged harshly by history. "President Mbeki, don't let this be your legacy," Ho said.
I've read some vague things which say SA won't use AZT because it isn't manufactured domestically.
AIDS is an entirely preventable disease. However, as long as intravenous drug abuse, homosexuality and out-of-marriage heterosexual behavior are tolerated, then mankind will pay the price of AIDS - Death. Personal irresponsibility is the spreader of AIDS.
Algore used his political clout to stop the SAs from producing their own AZT. He's forcing them to buy expensive stuff from US pharmaceutical companies, I believe. They simply can't afford them. It is a basic principal of Elitist Liberals, that there are too many black and brown babies in this world.
Which is cheaper? (a) Two decades of publicly and privately financed AIDS research; (b) Condoms; (c) Your own hypodermic needle and syringe.
President Mbeki has not seen proof that AZT will do anything other than make sick people sicker. Please do not believe the mainstream media picture of Africans as being more sexually irresponsible than the rest of us. To do so would not be fair.
David Ho is a charlatan and a mass murderer. To find out why, go here.
David Ho is the personal doctor of Magic Johnson. When Magic drops dead, then I'll believe Ho is a charlatan.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
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