Durban Declaration

Last updated

The Durban Declaration is a statement signed by over 5,000 physicians and scientists in 2000, affirming that HIV is the cause of AIDS, seventeen years after the discovery of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus. [1] The declaration was drafted in response to HIV/AIDS denialism, and particularly to address South African president Thabo Mbeki's support for AIDS denialists. [2] It was written several weeks before the 2000 International AIDS Conference, held in Durban, South Africa from July 9 to 14, 2000, and was published in the journal Nature to coincide with the Durban conference. The declaration called the evidence that HIV causes AIDS "clear-cut, exhaustive and unambiguous". [3]

Contents

Each person who signed the document was required to have a Ph.D. or M.D.-equivalent degree. To avoid the appearance of conflict of interest, scientists "working for commercial companies were asked not to sign." The signatories included eleven Nobel Prize winners. [3]

Reaction

Michael Specter, writing in the New Yorker , called the Durban Declaration "one of the saddest documents in modern scientific history," reflecting concern that Mbeki's embrace of AIDS denialism was a disastrous response to South Africa's AIDS epidemic. [4] Mbeki's government reportedly pressured South African scientists not to sign the document, [5] and initially dismissed the Durban declaration. Health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang called it "elitist", [4] while Mbeki's spokesperson said it belonged in a "dustbin". [5]

Several AIDS denialists criticized the Declaration in a letter to the editor of Nature , casting the issue as an abridgement of their rights to free speech and an intolerance of "alternative" viewpoints. [6] In response, Nature later published a letter detailing inaccurate claims made by AIDS denialists in their attacks on the Declaration, [7] and a second satirical letter from two AIDS researchers, stating: "We are staunch believers in the right to free speech, but is Nature the appropriate place to militate in favour of the pre-Copernican model of the universe or the existence of phlogiston?" [8]

In 2008, independent estimates by public health experts attributed over 300,000 preventable South African AIDS deaths and nearly 200,000 new HIV infections to government policies based on the AIDS denialist assertions criticised by the Durban Declaration. [9] [10]

Related Research Articles

The Duesberg hypothesis is the claim that AIDS is not caused by HIV, but instead that AIDS is caused by noninfectious factors such as recreational and pharmaceutical drug use and that HIV is merely a harmless passenger virus. The hypothesis was popularized by Peter Duesberg, a professor of biology at University of California, Berkeley, from whom the hypothesis gets its name. The scientific consensus is that the Duesberg hypothesis is incorrect and that HIV is the cause of AIDS. The most prominent supporters of the hypothesis are Duesberg himself, biochemist and vitamin proponent David Rasnick, and journalist Celia Farber. The scientific community generally contends that Duesberg's arguments in favor of the hypothesis are the result of cherry-picking predominantly outdated scientific data and selectively ignoring evidence that demonstrates HIV's role in causing AIDS.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Duesberg</span> German-American molecular biologist (born 1936)

Peter Heinz Hermann Duesberg is a German-American molecular biologist and a professor of molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley. He is known for his early research into the genetic aspects of cancer. He is a proponent of AIDS denialism, the claim that HIV does not cause AIDS.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thabo Mbeki</span> President of South Africa from 1999 to 2008

Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki is a South African politician who served as the 2nd democratic president of South Africa from 14 June 1999 to 24 September 2008, when he resigned at the request of his party, the African National Congress (ANC). Before that, he was deputy president under Nelson Mandela from 1994 to 1999.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HIV/AIDS denialism</span> False belief that HIV does not cause AIDS

HIV/AIDS denialism is the belief, despite conclusive evidence to the contrary, that the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) does not cause acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). Some of its proponents reject the existence of HIV, while others accept that HIV exists but argue that it is a harmless passenger virus and not the cause of AIDS. Insofar as they acknowledge AIDS as a real disease, they attribute it to some combination of sexual behavior, recreational drugs, malnutrition, poor sanitation, haemophilia, or the effects of the medications used to treat HIV infection (antiretrovirals).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Treatment Action Campaign</span> South African HIV/AIDS activist organization

The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) is a South African HIV/AIDS activist organisation which was co-founded by the HIV-positive activist Zackie Achmat in 1998. TAC is rooted in the experiences, direct action tactics and anti-apartheid background of its founder. TAC has been credited with forcing the reluctant government of former South African President Thabo Mbeki to begin making antiretroviral drugs available to South Africans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manto Tshabalala-Msimang</span> South African politician (1940–2009)

Mantombazana "Manto" Edmie Tshabalala-Msimang OMSS was a South African politician. She was Deputy Minister of Justice from 1996 to 1999 and served as Minister of Health from 1999 to 2008 under President Thabo Mbeki. She also served as Minister in the Presidency under President Kgalema Motlanthe from September 2008 to May 2009.

Matthias Rath is a doctor, businessman, and vitamin salesman. He earned his medical degree in Germany. Rath claims that a program of nutritional supplements, including formulations that he sells, can treat or cure diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and HIV/AIDS. These claims are not supported by any reliable medical research. Rath runs the Dr. Rath Health Foundation, has been closely associated with Health Now, Inc., and founded the Dr. Rath Research Institute.

Christine Joy Maggiore was an HIV-positive activist and promoter of HIV/AIDS denialism. She was the founder of Alive & Well AIDS Alternatives, an organization which disputes the link between HIV and AIDS and urges HIV-positive pregnant women to avoid anti-HIV medication. Maggiore authored and self-published the book What If Everything You Thought You Knew about AIDS Was Wrong?

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HIV/AIDS</span> Spectrum of conditions caused by HIV infection

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. It is a preventable disease. There is no vaccine or cure for HIV. It can be managed with treatment and become a manageable chronic health condition. While there is no cure or vaccine, antiretroviral treatment can slow the course of the disease and enable people living with HIV to lead long and healthy lives. An HIV-positive person on treatment can expect to live a normal life, and die with the virus, not of it. Effective treatment for HIV-positive people involves a life-long regimen of medicine to suppress the virus, making the viral load undetectable. Without treatment it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HIV/AIDS in South Africa</span> Health concern in South Africa

HIV/AIDS is one of the most serious health concerns in South Africa. South Africa has the highest number of people afflicted with HIV of any country, and the fourth-highest adult HIV prevalence rate, according to the 2019 United Nations statistics. About 8 million South Africans out of the 60 million population live with HIV.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Denialism</span> Persons choice to deny psychologically uncomfortable truth

In the psychology of human behavior, denialism is a person's choice to deny reality as a way to avoid believing in a psychologically uncomfortable truth. Denialism is an essentially irrational action that withholds the validation of a historical experience or event when a person refuses to accept an empirically verifiable reality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pride Chigwedere</span> Zimbabwean physician-scientist

Pride Chigwedere, a Zimbabwean national, is a Harvard trained physician-scientist working in global health. He is most notable for leading a team of Harvard researchers who demonstrated that South African President Thabo Mbeki's AIDS policies led to more than 300 000 deaths. While South Africa's policies were condemned by many, Chigwedere's contribution was in developing and applying methods to quantify the impact of the policies thus demonstrating the calamitous consequences of AIDS denialism. Generalized, he developed an approach for evaluating public health practice and highlighted the need to develop a framework for accountability in public health. Drawing from the analogy with medicine, he has proposed the concept of public health malpractice to capture negligence that causes harm as a useful first step towards accountability in public health. A response to Chigwedere's work by AIDS denialists led by Peter Duesberg was initially published by the non-peer-reviewed journal Medical Hypotheses followed by a retraction because of poor quality of data, undeclared conflicts of interest, and potential effects on global health.

Seth C. Kalichman is an American clinical community psychologist and professor of social psychology at the University of Connecticut, known for his research into HIV/AIDS treatment and HIV/AIDS denialism. Kalichman is also the director of the Southeast HIV/AIDS Research & Education Project in Atlanta, Georgia, and Cape Town, South Africa, and the editor of the journal AIDS and Behavior. He is the developer of the Sexual Compulsivity Scale.

Nicoli Nattrass is a South African development economist who is professor of economics at the University of Cape Town (UCT). She is the co-director of the Institute for Communities and Wildlife in Africa (iCWild) and was the founding director of the Centre for Social Science Research (CSSR).

In South Africa, HIV/AIDS denialism had a significant impact on public health policy from 1999 to 2008, during the presidency of Thabo Mbeki. Mbeki criticized the scientific consensus that HIV is the cause of AIDS beginning shortly after his election to the presidency. In 2000, he organized a Presidential Advisory Panel regarding HIV/AIDS including several scientists who denied that HIV caused AIDS.

Big Pharma conspiracy theories are conspiracy theories that claim that pharmaceutical companies as a whole, especially big corporations, act in dangerously secretive and sinister ways that harm patients. This includes concealing effective treatments, perhaps even to the point of intentionally causing and/or worsening a wide range of diseases, in the pursuit of higher profits and/or other nefarious goals. The general public supposedly lives in a state of ignorance, according to such claims.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jerry Coovadia</span>

Hoosen Mahomed "Jerry" Coovadia was a South African medical doctor, academic, and former anti-apartheid activist. He was previously the Victor Daitz Emeritus Chair and Professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal Nelson Mandela School of Medicine.

Roy D. Mugerwa was a Ugandan physician, cardiologist and researcher. His contribution to the world of academics include being a Professor Emeritus at Makerere University College of Health Sciences in Kampala, cardiology in Uganda, researching HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, and his efforts to find an effective HIV vaccine.

Fred Mhalu is a microbiologist and medical researcher from Tanzania. His main area of study revolves around infectious diseases and intervention. Ever since 1986, he has been a main contributor to the information about AIDS in Africa. As a co-coordinator of a Tanzanian-Swedish research collaboration called TANSWED, he was involved in many research projects that lead to multiple publications in medical journals. His more recent research on HIV/AIDS involves studying breast cancer in HIV prevalent areas, evaluating prevention of mother-to-child-transmission of HIV-1, and observing sexual behaviors of high risk populations for HIV-1.

Lionel Percival Hercules Mbeki Mtshali was a South African politician who was Premier of KwaZulu-Natal from 1999 to 2004. He was known for unilaterally ordering the expansion of the province's antiretrovirals programme during the HIV/AIDS epidemic, in defiance of the policy of the national government under President Thabo Mbeki. A founding member and former chairperson of the Inkatha Freedom Party, Mtshali was also national Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology in the government of President Nelson Mandela from 1996 to 1999.

References

  1. ↑ "The Durban Declaration". Nature. 406 (6791): 15–16. 2000. doi:10.1038/35017662. ISSN   1476-4687. PMID   10894520. S2CID   205007392.
  2. ↑ Aiken, Jonathan (2000-07-01). "International scientists, doctors reaffirm HIV causes AIDS". CNN. Archived from the original on 2013-01-19. Retrieved 2008-10-14.
  3. 1 2 "The Durban Declaration". Nature. 406 (6791): 15–6. 2000. doi:10.1038/35017662. PMID   10894520. S2CID   205007392.
  4. 1 2 Specter, Michael (2007-03-12). "The Denialists". New Yorker . Retrieved 2008-10-14.
  5. 1 2 Sidley P (July 2000). "Mbeki dismisses "Durban declaration"". BMJ (Clinical Research Ed.). 321 (7253): 67. doi:10.1136/bmj.321.7253.67/a. PMC   1127750 . PMID   10884240.
  6. ↑ Stewart GT (September 2000). "The Durban Declaration is not accepted by all". Nature. 407 (6802): 286. doi: 10.1038/35030200 . PMID   11014164. S2CID   37171159.
  7. ↑ Delaney M (November 2000). "Why are AIDS dissidents still making 15-year-old, long-refuted claims?". Nature. 408 (6810): 287. Bibcode:2000Natur.408..287D. doi: 10.1038/35042743 . PMID   11099014.
  8. ↑ Wain-Hobson S, Weiss RA (October 2000). "If free speech costs lives that's a high price to pay". Nature. 407 (6806): 834. Bibcode:2000Natur.407..834W. doi: 10.1038/35038262 . PMID   11057643.
  9. ↑ Chigwedere P, Seage GR, Gruskin S, Lee TH, Essex M (October 2008). "Estimating the Lost Benefits of Antiretroviral Drug Use in South Africa". Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes. 49 (4): 410–415. doi: 10.1097/QAI.0b013e31818a6cd5 . PMID   19186354. S2CID   11458278.
  10. ↑ Nattrass N (February 2008). "Estimating the Lost Benefits of Antiretroviral Drug Use in South Africa". African Affairs. 107 (427): 157–76. doi: 10.1093/afraf/adm087 .
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.