Patent law reform will benefit both people with cancer and HIV

The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) campaign to Fix the Patent Laws has been criticised by cancer groups in South Africa.

Tags: cancer, patents  |  0 comments

Goldacre shows us how to be moral in the information age

Dr Ben Goldacre used to write a popular quack-busting column called Bad Science for the British newspaper The Guardian. He became quite well-known for that column and his book by the same name.

Quack company litigates against its critics

Solal Technologies is suing Kevin Charleston for R350,000 because he wrote on the Quackdown website that Solal Technologies' magazine, Health Intelligence is a  "disguised marketing programme for Solal Technologies, a company that actively promotes pseudoscience and aggressively attempts to shut out valid criticism of its advertising."

Charleston will be defending himself against Solal’s charges. He will have the support of the Treatment Action Campaign. He will be represented by SECTION27. The case, when it comes to court, promises to be an important test of the right to freedom of expression, and the duty of companies to market ...

Tags: Solal, defamation  |  3 comments

Blom simply wrong about male circumcision

On 3 September Business Day published a poor article, filled with errors, on circumcision by Neels Blom. Here is a response to Blom's article by Dirk Taljaard of the Centre for HIV/AIDS Prevention Studies (CHAPS) and Bophelo Pele Circumcision Study.

Tags: circumcision  |  3 comments

TAC complains to Public Protector about Tara KLamp

The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) has lodged a complaint with the Public Protector against the Kwazulu-Natal MEC for Health and the Kwazulu-Natal Department of Health for its continued use of the dangerous circumcision device, the Tara KLamp.

An elegant solution to regulating complementary and alternative medicine (CAM)

South Africa is awash with untested complementary and alternative medicines (CAMs). The market for these products is anarchic. Consumers are taken advantage of by unscrupulous salespeople. The government is putting together special rules for this class of products, but it seems an elegant solution to this problem, already contained in the Medicines Act, is being ignored.

Tags: None  |  7 comments

Epstein is wrong about South Africa's AIDS response

This is a response to an article written by Helen Epstein on the New York Review of Books Blog.

Tags: None  |  3 comments

Medicines Control Council needs new leaders

The Medicines Control Council needs a new chairperson and a new registrar. Peter Eagles (the chair) and Mandisa Hela (the registrar) need to go.

Tags: None  |  0 comments

Getting circumcision science right in the media

The evidence that voluntary medical male circumcision reduces the risk of a heterosexual man contracting HIV in high prevalence areas is beyond reasonable doubt.

Tags: circumcision  |  14 comments

HIVEX closed down

HIVEX limited used to offer an unproven electromagnetic therapy as a treatment for HIV at a facility in Durban. Following pressure from various quarters, this facility has recently been closed down.

Tags: HIV, HIVEX, arms deal  |  1 comment