Editing Matthias Rath (section)

==Criticism==

=== Credentials ===
The [[Democratic Alliance (South Africa)|Democratic Alliance]] (DA), an official opposition party in South Africa, said Rath was representing himself as a medical doctor in his literature distributed in South Africa, and claimed that this was against the law since he was not registered as a doctor in South Africa. The DA filed complaints with the Health Professions Council of South Africa and the police. The Health Professions Council said it could not discipline Rath since its jurisdiction is restricted to registered doctors.<ref>[http://www.aegis.com/news/sapa/2007/SA070702.html 'Health council says it cannot stop Rath'] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090416084517/http://www.aegis.com/news/sapa/2007/SA070702.html |date=16 April 2009 }} South African Press Association, 12 July 2007. Retrieved 10 September 2008.</ref>

A lawyer representing Rath responded to the complaints by stating that the title 'Dr.' referred in Rath's case to "a PHD doctorate he had obtained and his position as a researcher, not a medical doctor."<ref>'Rath "not claiming to be a Dr."' South Africa News 24, 13 July 2007. Retrieved 8 September 2008.</ref><ref>[http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20070728112936498C984744 'Rath "misrepresenting himself"-DA] IOL South Africa, 28 July 2007. Retrieved 8 September 2008.</ref>

Other sources, however, describe Rath as a "qualified doctor"<ref name="FallofRath"/> and state that he "obtained his basic medical degree in 1985, after studying in Munster and Hamburg" and "became a researcher first at the University Clinic in Hamburg and then, during 1989 and 1990, at the Berlin Heart Centre....In 2003, the regional court in Berlin banned Rath from calling himself in his adverts 'the renowned doctor' and/or 'the renowned scientist', after a court case in which medical and scientific witnesses said he was neither. In the same year, Rath's theories and micronutrients were disavowed by the respected and influential Swiss Study Group for Complementary and Alternative Methods in Cancer."<ref name="business-guardian"/>

===South African Council of Churches===
To address the "confusion" created by Rath's advertising campaign, the [[South African Council of Churches]] issued a statement that Rath's activities in South Africa "can only be interpreted as misguided strategies to promote Rath's own brand of nutritional supplements." The Council affirmed the importance of both antiretroviral medication and good nutrition for people with HIV, and pointed out that multivitamins are distributed by [[public health]] services and need not be obtained from Rath's organisation.<ref>[http://www.sacc.org.za/news05/rathads.html "Don't Be Confused by Unproven Medical Claims, SACC warns"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061231094538/http://www.sacc.org.za/news05/rathads.html |date=31 December 2006 }}. Statement by the [[South African Council of Churches]], issued 18 April 2005. Retrieved 9 March 2007.</ref>