{"id":4317,"date":"2001-05-17T21:34:10","date_gmt":"2001-05-17T20:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/moomango.co.uk\/htb\/?p=4317"},"modified":"2014-06-12T13:53:45","modified_gmt":"2014-06-12T13:53:45","slug":"south-african-panel-recognizes-hiv-as-cause-of-aids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/4317","title":{"rendered":"South African panel recognizes HIV as cause of AIDS"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>A controversial panel appointed by South African President Thabo Mbeki to look into the causes of AIDS has accepted the premise that the country&#8217;s AIDS epidemic is caused by HIV infection, at least for now.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;&#8221;Pending the outcome of further research, the debates of the panel have not provided grounds for Government to depart from its current approach to the HIV\/AIDS problem, which is rooted in the premise that HIV causes AIDS,&#8221; Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said in a statement on Wednesday on the interim report by the panel.<\/p>\n<p>The report said scientists would conduct a three-phased inquiry into the validity of current HIV testing practices.<\/p>\n<p>Mbeki was widely criticized for appointing advisers who questioned the link between HIV and AIDS to the panel formed more than a year ago, and for denying the use of antiretroviral drugs in the public health system on cost and safety grounds.<\/p>\n<p>Mbeki said at the time of the panel&#8217;s creation that science could not claim to &#8220;constitute biblical absolute truths.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>So-called &#8220;dissidents&#8221; argue that AIDS is not caused by HIV, but is a result of a breakdown of the body&#8217;s immune system brought on by recreational drug use, antiretroviral drugs, such as AZT, or poverty.<\/p>\n<p>Virtually all experts agree that HIV causes AIDS.<\/p>\n<p>Source: Reuters Health<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A controversial panel appointed by South African President Thabo Mbeki to look into the causes of AIDS has accepted the premise that the country&#8217;s AIDS epidemic is caused by HIV infection, at least for now. &#8220;&#8221;Pending the outcome of further &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-other-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4317\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}