South African Actress Stops Taking Her HIV Meds
South African soap opera actress Lesego Motsepe, an “AIDS ambassador” who has worked to educate children about HIV, has revealed that she quit antiretroviral therapy against her doctor’s advice, The Times reports. On the South African talk show 3Talk, Motsepe stated that she was switching to a “holistic regimen” of meditation and a diet of beetroot and garlic because she couldn’t bear the thought of taking HIV meds for the rest of her life. The late South African health minister “Manto” Tshabalala-Msimang used to promote a beetroot-garlic diet in lieu of antiretroviral therapy, and that dangerous advice might have played a significant role in South Africa’s high HIV incidence and mortality in the previous decade.
This is dangerous stuff you guys: a public person deciding to forgo scientifically proven, life-sustaining medications and announcing it? No good.
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