Mbeki Plays Down AIDS and Orders a Rethink on Spending

South African President Thabo Mbeki has alarmed doctors and health professionals with a letter he wrote to Health Minister Dr. Manto Tshabala-Msimang in August which ordered a re-examination of health and social policy, spending, and research in light of figures on deaths from AIDS. Mbeki suggested to the health minister that there were fewer deaths from AIDS than conventional wisdom claimed. In citing the number of deaths, Mbeki chose figures from 1995, when deaths from AIDS were considerably lower than they are today and when the figures did not include deaths from diseases related to AIDS.

In the letter, Mbeki instructed the health minister to look at 1995 figures, which he extracted from the World Health Organization's Web site. At that time AIDS accounted for only 2.2 percent of deaths in South Africa. Other diseases and disorders were shown to kill many more people.

Mbeki made three points for the health minister to consider. He asked whether current health policies dealt adequately with preventing death, given the chief causes of death in the country. He also questioned whether priorities for health and social spending were appropriate. Finally, Mbeki asked whether state-funded medical research was appropriate. The letter repeated a proposal from the presidential AIDS panel to question AIDS figures "that are regularly peddled as a true representation of what is happening in our country." The letter stated, "Needless to say, these figures will provoke a howl of displeasure and a concerted propaganda campaign among those who have convinced themselves that HIV/AIDS is the single biggest cause of death in our country."

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