Controversial AIDS scientist prompts outcry

CAPE TOWN — A campaign of civil disobedience is to take place in South Africa next week to protest against the government's hiring of Roberto Giraldo — a controversial scientist who denies that HIV causes AIDS.

Although health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, insisted that Giraldo will not be a ministerial advisor but is simply giving advice on nutrition and HIV/AIDS, the appointment brought howls of protest from AIDS advocates and politicians.

Nonkosi Khumalo, spokeswoman for the advocacy group Treatment Action Campaign, told The Scientist, "Appointing a denialist shows that the health minister still does not believe that HIV causes AIDS. There should be a vote of no confidence in the health minister. She is a disappointment as a doctor."

Giraldo believes that antiretroviral drugs cause, rather than slow, the progression to AIDS. On his website he says: "There are many scientific facts indicating that … HIV is not the cause of ...