4.2 KiB
| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HIV/AIDS denialism | 9/9 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIV/AIDS_denialism | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T09:21:05.729092+00:00 | kb-cron |
It [South Africa] is the only country in Africa … whose government is still obtuse, dilatory and negligent about rolling out treatment… It is the only country in Africa whose government continues to promote theories more worthy of a lunatic fringe than of a concerned and compassionate state. In 2002, Mbeki requested that HIV/AIDS denialists no longer use his name in their literature and stop signing documents with "Member of President Mbeki's AIDS Advisory Panel". This coincided with the South African government's statement accompanying its 2002 AIDS campaign, that "...in conducting this campaign, government's starting point is based on the premise that HIV causes AIDS". Mbeki continued to promote and defend AIDS-denialist claims. His loyalists attacked former President Nelson Mandela in 2002 when Mandela questioned the government's AIDS policy, and Mbeki attacked Malegapuru William Makgoba, one of South Africa's leading scientists, as a racist defender of "Western science" for opposing HIV/AIDS denialism. In early 2005, former South African President Nelson Mandela announced that his son had died of complications of AIDS. Mandela's public announcement was seen as both an effort to combat the stigma associated with AIDS, and as a "political statement designed to… force the President [Mbeki] out of his denial."
==== Post-Mbeki government in South Africa ==== In 2008, Mbeki was ousted from power and replaced as President of South Africa by Kgalema Motlanthe. On Motlanthe's first day in office, he removed Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, the controversial health minister who had promoted AIDS-denialist claims and recommended garlic, beetroot, and lemon juice as treatments for AIDS. Barbara Hogan, newly appointed as health minister, voiced shame at the Mbeki government's embrace of HIV/AIDS denialism and vowed a new course, stating: "The era of denialism is over completely in South Africa." Since then, thanks to the introduction of fixed-dose combination and an increase in the eligibility antiretroviral therapy for South Africans, the number of South African people with HIV undergoing ART has increased to 91.5% and viral suppression in South Africans on ART has increased to 72% for women and 45.8% for men.
== 2020s resurgence ==
Following COVID-19 conspiracy theories being widely-spread beginning in 2020, AIDS denialism is increasingly being spread. Suspicion of public health agencies during the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a resurgence of conspiracy theories surrounding HIV and AIDS. Social media companies like Twitter, Gab, Rumble, and Substack and companies like Amazon and Spotify are places where misinformation have been widely spread. The ideas that are increasingly circulated are often revived, debunked theories from the beginning of the epidemic.
== See also == Discredited HIV/AIDS origins theories Germ theory denialism Misconceptions about HIV and AIDS Vaccine hesitancy General:
Anti-intellectualism List of global issues
== Footnotes ==
== References == Kalichman, Seth (2009). Denying AIDS: Conspiracy Theories, Pseudoscience, and Human Tragedy. New York: Copernicus Books; Springer Science+Business Media. ISBN 978-0-387-79476-1.
== Further reading == Fourie, P (2006). The Political Management of HIV and AIDS in South Africa: One Burden Too Many?. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-230-00667-6. Steinberg, J (23 June 2009). "Five myths about HIV and AIDS". New Scientist. Archived from the original on 2 January 2010. Nattrass, N (2012). The AIDS Conspiracy: Science Fights Back. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-14912-9.
== External links == National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases pages:
"The HIV-AIDS connection". Archived from the original on 9 September 2016 "The evidence that HIV causes AIDS". Archived from the original on 9 September 2016. "Series of articles in Science magazine examining denialist claims". Archived from the original on 28 December 2015. "HIV Causes AIDS". Avert. 23 June 2015. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. AidsTruth.org, an organization that advocates against AIDS denialism