Mbeki AIDS denialism

Thabo Mbeki’s questioning of the link between HIV and AIDS goes against all medical evidence and leads to years of denial and delay in rolling out treatment programmes in the face of the country’s exploding HIV epidemic. Mbeki also denounces life-saving antiretroviral drugs – focusing solely on their side effects rather than their benefits. In 2008, Harvard researchers estimate that 330,000 people have died unnecessarily during this period due to government inaction.