Editing Matthias Rath (section)

==Illegal AIDS trials in South Africa==
In 2005, according to [[Reuters]], Rath's foundation distributed tens of thousands of pamphlets in poor black [[Township (South Africa)|South African townships]], such as [[Khayelitsha]], claiming that [[antiretroviral|HIV medication]] was "poison" and urging HIV-positive people to instead use vitamins such as those Rath sells to treat HIV/AIDS.<ref name="reutersbell">[http://www.aegis.org/news/ads/2005/ad050741.html SOUTH AFRICA: South African Activists Take On AIDS 'Dissident'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081017102337/http://www.aegis.org/news/ads/2005/ad050741.html |date=17 October 2008 }}, by Gordon Bell. Published by [[Reuters]] on 19 April 2005. Retrieved 9 May 2008.</ref><ref>[http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20050224071119366C434402 Pamphlets confusing AIDS sufferers, says TAC]. By Babalo Ndenze; published 24 February 2005. Retrieved 31 July 2008.</ref> People with "advanced AIDS" were then recruited by the Rath Foundation and its surrogates for what the Rath Foundation called "a clinical pilot study in HIVpositive{{sic}} patients"<ref name="ST2005">{{cite web|url=http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/Articles/TarkArticle.aspx?ID=1605594 |title=HIV patients in illegal vitamin trial |accessdate=25 October 2008 |url-status=bot: unknown |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20051228080547/http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/Articles/TarkArticle.aspx?ID=1605594 |archivedate=28 December 2005 }} A. Thom, K. Bodibe, Sunday Times (Johannesburg), 4 September 2005. Retrieved 11 September 2008.</ref> Personnel of the South Africa National Civic Organisation (Sanco) administered the programme in Khayelitsha as "agents for the Rath foundation."<ref name="ST2005"/>

Patients were recruited for the study with offers of money or food<ref name="ST2005"/> and instructed to stop taking conventional HIV/AIDS medications.<ref name="FallofRath"/> Luthando Nogcinisa, a local Communist Party official, said that Rath agents recruited known HIV-positive individuals, "often with a pack of groceries, and they encourage the person not to take the antiretrovirals, but to rather take the vitamins".<ref name="ST2005"/> Mike Waters, Democratic Alliance health spokesperson, states that Rath gave patients "food parcels to convince them to give up their antiretrovirals and take his vitamin C supplements instead."<ref>[http://www.mg.co.za/article/2007-07-13-rath-lawyers-hit-back-at-da Mail & Guardian] Cape Town, SA, 13 July 2007. Retrieved 10 September 2008.</ref>

Rath Foundation employees reportedly infiltrated HIV/AIDS clinics in Khayelitsha and paid clinic staff to provide them with names of patients.<ref name="no-drugs">[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/sep/15/matthiasrath.aids No drugs, just take vitamins: the dangerous advice to cure HIV], by Chris McGreal. Published in ''The Guardian'' on 15 September 2008. Retrieved 16 September 2008.</ref> ''[[The Guardian]]'' described a case in which a pregnant woman newly diagnosed with HIV was visited at home by Rath Health Foundation employees and convinced to stop taking her antiretroviral medication in favour of Rath's vitamins; she died three months later.<ref name="human-cost">[https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2008/sep/12/matthias.rath.aids.south.africa Matthias Rath: The human cost], by Charlotte Rowles, Michael Tait, and Joe McAllister. Published 12 September 2008. Retrieved 16 September 2008.</ref> The Rath Foundation disputed that patients were asked to stop taking effective antiviral medication. Rath's lawyers also claimed that the trial was actually a "community nutrition programme" to which Rath contributed vitamins.<ref>[http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=13&set_id=1&art_id=nw20080313140358955C936310 Rath vitamins are 'a help, not a cure'] IOL, 13 March 2008. Retrieved 11 September 2008.</ref>

Five trial participants stated in [[affidavit]]s that they were stripped to their underwear, photographed, and forced to have their blood drawn. They were told to take pills containing what were said to be high doses of vitamins, including Rath's ''VitaCell''. Demetre Labadarios, who leads the Human Nutrition programme at [[Stellenbosch University]], questioned the safety of administering high doses of supplements to already sick patients.<ref name="ST2005"/>

During and immediately following the vitamin trials, "many people died,"<ref name="IOL0820">[http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=125&art_id=vn20080820054510271C909824 Manto's muti policy] A. Thom, South Africa Independent Online, 20 August 2008. Retrieved 10 September 2008.</ref> deaths Rath's adversaries attributed to lack of effective medication.<ref>[http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=nw20080312115808905C201443 People die taking Rath's products] IOL, 12 March 2008. Retrieved 10 September 2008.</ref> Sanco-Rath clinic workers reportedly instructed patients to return to the clinic in the event of medical emergency, rather than going to hospital.<ref name="IOL0820"/>

The [[Treatment Action Campaign]] (TAC) and the South African Medical Association (SAMA) took the Rath Foundation to court to prevent further unauthorised trials and stop the foundation's claims that vitamins could treat or cure HIV/AIDS. Rath's lawyer said that he had never claimed his vitamin products were a cure for HIV/AIDS, adding that Rath's only involvement in the affair was the donation of vitamins to the South African National Civics Organisation.<ref>[http://www.mg.co.za/article/2008-03-13-lawyer-denies-raths-vitamins-cure-aids Lawyer denies Rath's vitamins 'cure Aids'] [[Mail & Guardian]], South Africa. Published 13 March 2008. Retrieved 11 December 2008.</ref> TAC and SAMA prevailed in court over Rath and the Medicines Control Council on unauthorised trials and advertising of Rath's nutrients as a replacement therapy for HIV.<ref name="plusnews-1"/>

In September 2008 Rath was ordered to pay court costs in an unsuccessful libel action against ''[[The Guardian]]'' (UK) after the paper reported on his foundation's unauthorised drug trials in South Africa.<ref name="FallofRath"/>