Skeptics Guide on Manto and her antiscientific views

[bluegray V]

Manto Tshabalala-Msimang and her views on traditional medicine is discussed in this Skeptics Guide podcast: http://www.theskepticsguide.org/skepticsguide/podcastinfo.asp?pid=136
and also in this blog post:
http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=57

[wandapec]

Just downloaded it - you are on the ball!

[wandapec]

Some more on Manto and her crackpot ideas in SWIFT, the JREF newsletter. Most of it is covered in the Skeptics Guide podcast mentioned in the first post, for those who prefer to listen.

[scienceteacherinexile]

I was commenting on this a while back on one of the US blogs I read.  The topic was Mbeki's denialism.
I commented a lot on the health minister and her wackiness, but one of the other things I mentioned is that the situation may not improve post-Mbeki.
Several of the commenters were posting as if Mbeki will be gone soon, and the situation will be corrected.  I then informed them of Jacob Zuma and the then current ANC race.  I mentioned his "showering after sex" comments in his rape trial, and the fact that he had unprotected sex with someone knowing she was HIV+.
Remember also of his comments that in his culture, if he sees somone he likes, he can have all the sex he wants.  I have been told this is rubbish by some Zulu collegues, but that is beside the point.
If he becomes president, the HIV/AIDS policies here are most certainly not going to get better, and possibly, disastrously worse.

[wandapec]

Wasn't sure where to put this, but this is good news. This article has something good to say about our new minister of health.

South African health minister Barbara Hogan got her country up to speed with the rest of the world with one statement: “We know that HIV causes AIDS”

It is nice to see that we have hopefully moved on from "garlic, beetroot, lemon, olive oil and the African potato". The article states -

Hogan also said that South Africans “desperately need” an HIV vaccine, and challenged vaccine researchers to work harder and faster

[wandapec]

I guess it is a case of the blind leading the way for the blind -

Since her appointment as KwaZulu-Natal Health MEC in 2004, Peggy Nkonyeni has followed in the footsteps of her mentor, former minister of health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, by claiming that antiretroviral medication is toxic.

This article gives some of her comments and actions this year relating to her stance on the treatment of AIDS.