South Africa's "Dr Beetroot" dies
Martin
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8416659.stm>:
----- Begin Quote -----
South African ex-Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, criticised
for questioning whether HIV causes Aids, has died aged 69 from liver
disease.
Her critics dubbed her "Dr Beetroot" for her advocacy of healthy
eating rather than drugs to fight HIV.
As health minister between 1999 and 2008 she maintained that
anti-retroviral drugs were too expensive and had possible harmful
side-effects.
She was removed from the post when ex-President Thabo Mbeki stepped
down.
But a study last year claimed that more than 300,000 people had died
prematurely because of the delay in rolling out the drugs to people
with HIV between 2000 and 2005.
Some 5.2m South Africans have HIV - the highest number of people
living with the virus in one country in the world.
----- End Quote -----
--
<http://www.hiv-poz.co.uk/>
14 years, 11 months and 21 days.