I strongly, strongly recommend that you read this ‘missing chapter’ to Ben Goldacre’s ‘Bad Science’. It’s about the activities of Dr. Matthias Rath, who has waged a remarkably successful campaign of action against the use of anti-retroviral medication for HIV/AIDS patients in South Africa. He promotes the use of high-dose vitamins in their place.
Goldacre’s chapter was missing from the original ‘Bad Science’ because of legal action taken against him (under insane UK libel laws) by Rath’s organisation. Goldacre was successful in court due to help from The Guardian to fund his legal defence.
What shocks me is the degree to which decision-makers in South Africa were, and are, taken in by Rath’s nonsense, and the total lack of critical appraisal of his ideas. South Africa was to some extent an innovator in increasing the availability of generic medications during the early part of this decade, something I researched pretty closely in university. It’s stunning to me, then, that the same government officials responsible for those policies were also completely blind to the clear scientific evidence around them that ARVs work and should be prescribed. It’s also amazing that they were unaware, or unwilling to accept, that Rath is a manipulative and sociopathic crackpot.