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Matthias Rath

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Matthias Rath (born 1955) is a doctor,<ref name="FallofRath"/> businessman, and vitamin salesman.<ref>S Africa bans Aids vitamin trials BBC News, UK. Published 13 June 2008. Retrieved 10 September 2008.</ref><ref>BMJ pays out to doctor over 'child death' story. Template:Webarchive Press Gazette magazine. Published 5 June 2007. Retrieved 10 September 2008.</ref><ref name="new yorker"/><ref name="natmed"/> He earned his medical degree in Germany.<ref name="business-guardian"/> Rath claims that a program of nutritional supplements (which he calls "cellular medicine"), including formulations that he sells, can treat or cure diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and HIV/AIDS.<ref>Articles coauthored by Rath on these topics include:

The Sunday Times has described Rath as an "international campaigner for the use of natural remedies" whose "theories on the treatment of cancer have been rejected by health authorities all over the world."<ref>Dissidents take their crusade to the streets Template:Webarchive, By Rowan Philip and Edwin Lombard. Published in the Sunday Times (Johannesburg) on 30 November 2004. Retrieved 9 May 2008.</ref> On HIV/AIDS, Rath has disparaged the pharmaceutical industry and denounced antiretroviral medication as toxic and dangerous, while claiming that his vitamin pills could reverse the course of AIDS. As a result, Rath has been accused of "potentially endangering thousands of lives" in South Africa, a country with a massive AIDS epidemic where Rath was active in the mid-2000s.<ref name="FallofRath">Fall of the vitamin doctor: Matthias Rath drops libel action, by Sarah Boseley. The Guardian, UK, 12 September 2008. Retrieved 12 September 2008</ref> The head of Médecins Sans Frontières in South Africa Eric Goemaere said of Rath, “This guy is killing people by luring them with unrecognised treatment without any scientific evidence”; Rath attempted to sue him.<ref name="BadScience"/><ref name="thelancet" /><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Rath's claims and methods have been widely criticised by medical organisations, AIDS-activist groups, and the United Nations, among others.<ref name="new yorker">The Denialists: The dangerous attacks on the consensus about H.I.V. and AIDS, by Michael Specter. Published in The New Yorker on 12 March 2007. Retrieved 16 April 2007.</ref><ref name="natmed">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="lancet-news">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="unreuters">U.N. slams AIDS 'dissident' for attack on drugs Template:Webarchive, by Stephanie Nebehay. Published by Reuters on 12 May 2005. Retrieved 9 May 2008</ref> Former South African President Thabo Mbeki and former Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang have also been criticised by the medical and AIDS-activist community for their perceived support for Rath's claims.<ref name="lancet-news"/><ref>'Minister defends vitamin guru’s views on AIDS, nutrition’ Business Day newspaper, South Africa. Published 13 April 2005. Retrieved 3 June 2008.</ref><ref>TAC calls for Manto’s head over Rath Template:Webarchive. Published 13 June 2008. Retrieved 20 June 2008.</ref> According to doctors with Médecins Sans Frontières,<ref name="Denouncer"/> the Treatment Action Campaign (a South African AIDS-activist group)<ref name="plusnews-1">South Africa: TAC prevails over Rath. PlusNews Global, 13 June 2008. Template:Webarchive. Retrieved 15 June 2008.</ref> and a former Rath colleague,<ref name="no-drugs"/> unauthorised clinical trials run by Rath and his associates, using vitamins as therapy for HIV, resulted in deaths of some participants. In 2008, the Cape High Court found the trials unlawful, banned Rath and his foundation from conducting unauthorised clinical trials and from advertising their products, and instructed the South African Health Department to fully investigate Rath's vitamin trials.<ref name="plusnews-1"/><ref>South African court bans AIDS vitamin trials Template:Webarchive. Published by Reuters on 13 June 2008. Retrieved 20 June 2008.</ref> In 2008, Rath expanded his advertising to Russia, a country where the incidence of HIV/AIDS had been increasing.<ref name="FallofRath"/>

BackgroundEdit

Born in Stuttgart, Germany, Rath studied at the Hamburg University Medical School in Germany.<ref name="african-decisions">Natural health in Africa. African Decisions magazine. Issue 3/2004. Pages 26–28.</ref> After graduating, he began researching arteriosclerosis at the University Clinic of Hamburg. Later, during 1989 and 1990, he was a researcher at the Berlin Heart Centre.<ref name="business-guardian"/> He subsequently joined two-time Nobel Prize laureate Linus Pauling at his research institute in California.<ref name="african-decisions"/> Ultimately, Rath had a falling-out with the Linus Pauling Institute; after a series of lawsuits and countersuits, Rath was ordered in 1994 to pay the Institute $75,000 and was assigned several patents.<ref name="business-guardian">A global business built on vitamins – and the claim to kill all disease, by Sarah Bosely. Published in The Guardian on 12 September 2008. Retrieved 16 September 2008.</ref> Rath subsequently developed his own branded nutrient products, set up the Dr. Rath Health Foundation and Dr. Rath Research Institute, and funds nutrition research with patent development in what he calls "Cellular Medicine".

Rath has offices in California, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and South Africa (Cape Town). His foundation also advertises its products in Spain, France, and Russia.<ref name="FallofRath"/><ref>"Discredited doctor's 'cure' for Aids ignites life-and-death struggle in South Africa", by Sarah Boseley. Published in The Guardian on 14 May 2005.</ref> According to Eversheds, Rath's solicitor, the Dr. Rath Health Foundation is "a not-for-profit body which conducts research into science-based natural therapies",<ref>'BMJ pays out to doctor over 'child death' story.’ Template:Webarchive Press Gazette magazine. Published 5 June 2007. Retrieved 8 April 2008.</ref> but the foundation is estimated to have earned "millions" through nutritional supplement sales.<ref name="Denouncer">'Matthias Rath: Denouncer of modern medicine.' S. Boseley, The Guardian, 12 September 2008. Retrieved 12 September 2008.</ref>

According to Rath, international events of the last century have been driven by pharmaceutical and oil companies. He claims that these interests started and exploited World War II.<ref name="FallofRath"/> In court filings, Rath and his lawyers write that the pharmaceutical industry then started apartheid in South Africa as part of a global conspiracy to "conquer and control the entire African continent." They specifically mention former Nazi officials and the German chemical company IG Farben as playing a central role in the alleged conspiracy. They also compare Rath's adversaries in court to Hitler's stormtroopers.<ref>'Apartheid a pharmaceutical plot-Rath' Template:Webarchive IOL-South Africa, 10 May 2007. Retrieved 8 September 2008.</ref>

Rath suggests that the pharmaceutical industry continues to control international politics today, allowing 9/11 to occur and starting the Iraq War to divert attention from what he considers the failures of drug companies.<ref name="no-drugs"/> On his website, Rath states that United States President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, at the behest of what Rath calls the "pharmaceutical cartel", were planning a nuclear war in advance of the 4 November 2008 elections in the United States. Rath has made similar claims in the New York Times and other major newspapers around the world in the form of large advertisements reportedly designed to resemble newspaper editorials.<ref name="business-guardian"/>

AwardsEdit

In 2001, the American Preventive Medical Association and the National Foundation for Alternative Medicine, both health freedom advocacy groups, gave Rath the Bulwark of Liberty Award.<ref>Health Products Business magazine Published 1 July 2001. Retrieved 3 September 2008.</ref>

ControversiesEdit

Rath's theories, claims, and research, particularly his efforts to persuade South Africans to use his vitamin supplements to treat HIV/AIDS, have been controversial.<ref name="new yorker"/><ref name="natmed"/><ref>A New All-time Low, by Ben Goldacre. Published in "Bad Science" in The Guardian on 20 January 2007. Retrieved 16 April 2007.</ref><ref>Death by Denial, from The New Republic. Published 12 March 2007. Retrieved 16 April 2007.</ref>

Illegal AIDS trials in South AfricaEdit

In 2005, according to Reuters, Rath's foundation distributed tens of thousands of pamphlets in poor black South African townships, such as Khayelitsha, claiming that 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">SOUTH AFRICA: South African Activists Take On AIDS 'Dissident' Template:Webarchive, by Gordon Bell. Published by Reuters on 19 April 2005. Retrieved 9 May 2008.</ref><ref>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 HIVpositiveTemplate:Sic patients"<ref name="ST2005">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} 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>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">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">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>Rath vitamins are 'a help, not a cure' IOL, 13 March 2008. Retrieved 11 September 2008.</ref>

Five trial participants stated in affidavits 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">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>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>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"/>

Efficacy and marketing claimsEdit

SKAKEdit

In 2004 the Swiss Study Group for Complementary and Alternative Methods in Cancer (SKAK), an independent group that evaluates alternative medical treatments, examined Rath's vitamin preparations and marketing claims.<ref name="swiss">Report from the Swiss Study Group on Complementary and Alternative Methods in Cancer, stating that there is no evidence that Rath's treatments are effective. Retrieved 21 September 2006.</ref> SKAK reported that it "found no proof that the vitamin preparations of Dr. Matthias Rath have any effect on human cancer" and "advise[s] against their use in cancer prevention and treatment while recommending a diet rich in fruit and vegetables."<ref name="swiss"/> SKAK's report specifically criticised Rath for:

  • Making sweeping, unsubstantiated claims of efficacy. Rath has claimed that his vitamin treatments can cure all forms of cancer, as well as most infectious diseases, including AIDS.<ref>Rath, M.: Durchbruch der Zellforschung im Kampf gegen den Krebs. 3d ed. 2002, MR Publishing B.V., Almelo, NL</ref><ref name="brochure">Rath, M.: Cellular health Series – Cancer. 2/2001, MR Publishing, Sta. Clara, CA 95054</ref>
  • Citing anecdotal reports of success that could not be confirmed. In the case of one patient allegedly "cured" by Rath's methods, SKAK found that "it is not even certain from a medical perspective if cancer was present."
  • Using a self-developed test of efficacy rather than widely accepted and verified tests and endpoints.

SKAK's conclusion regarding Rath's vitamin formulations was:

A cancer-curing effect has not been documented for any of these substances. Nor is there any proof that the preparations sold by Matthias Rath, some with high dosages, are useful in cancer prevention—leave alone curing cancer. Rath still owes proof regarding the correctness of his claims. Proof of effect cannot be provided by analogy with in vitro, animal or cell experiments. Because there is no proof for effect nor for the harmlessness of the preparations, SKAK advises against their use.<ref name="swiss"/>

Harvard multivitamin studyEdit

Rath claimed that a Harvard School of Public Health study published in the New England Journal of Medicine<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> validated claims that multivitamin supplementation slows the progression of HIV to AIDS. The study's authors released a statement condemning Rath's "irresponsible and misleading statements, as in our view they deliberately misinterpret findings from our studies to advocate against the scale-up of antiretroviral therapy."<ref name="harvard">Statement from the authors of the Harvard School of Public Health study, stating that Rath has misused their study results. Retrieved 20 September 2006.</ref> The authors felt that Rath had misused their results to argue that multivitamins should be used in place of antiretroviral medication. They affirmed the central role of antiretroviral medication in treating AIDS and indicated that multivitamins should be at most a supplementary treatment.<ref name="harvard"/>

Use of published medical literatureEdit

A 1998 British Medical Journal article examined some of Rath's and Health Now's claims in support of Rath's multivitamin supplement blend.<ref name="bmj">Template:Cite journal – article also available online in its entirety.</ref> The authors found that Rath listed 40 citations to support his product but that only eight of them were of actual clinical trials. After examining these clinical trials, the authors concluded that despite Rath's claims to the contrary, "no general clinical benefit of vitamins C and E and carotene can be proved from the works cited by Health Now."<ref name="bmj"/>

Claims of WHO and UN supportEdit

Rath's advertising material has suggested that his nutritional supplements are superior to antiretroviral therapy in the treatment of HIV/AIDS and implied that his claims were endorsed by the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and UNAIDS. These agencies issued a joint statement condemning Rath's advertisements as "wrong and misleading".<ref name="unreuters"/><ref name="WHO.UNICEF.UNAIDS">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

CriticismEdit

CredentialsEdit

The 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>'Health council says it cannot stop Rath' Template:Webarchive 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>'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 ChurchesEdit

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>"Don't Be Confused by Unproven Medical Claims, SACC warns" Template:Webarchive. Statement by the South African Council of Churches, issued 18 April 2005. Retrieved 9 March 2007.</ref>

Legal casesEdit

Rath has been involved in a number of legal cases.

See alsoEdit

ReferencesEdit

Template:Reflist

External linksEdit

Template:Authority control

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