President (Thabo Mbeki) attacked (by South Africa's Anglican archbishop for questioning that HIV leads to AIDS).Johannesburg (ENI) -- South Africa's Anglican archbishop has attacked the country's president, Thabo Mbeki Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki (born June 18 1942) is the current President of the Republic of South Africa.<ref name="gcis-profile2004" /> Early years Born and raised in what is now the Eastern Cape province of South Africa, Mbeki is the son of Govan Mbeki (1910 , for questioning the scientific premise that the human immunodeficiency virus human immunodeficiency virus n. HIV. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) A transmissible retrovirus that causes AIDS in humans. (HIV HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), either of two closely related retroviruses that invade T-helper lymphocytes and are responsible for AIDS. There are two types of HIV: HIV-1 and HIV-2. HIV-1 is responsible for the vast majority of AIDS in the United States. ) leads to AIDS. Speaking in November at a conference in Johannesburg, Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane of Cape Town said "nothing could be more cruel to those infected than to believe that HIV is not the cause of AIDS." The archbishop added that President Mbeki's questioning of the link between HIV and AIDS amounted to "ignorance of the facts, and denial." Archbishop Ndungane's speech marked his latest and toughest attack on the South African government's hesitant approach to tackling the AIDS pandemic. An estimated one out of nine South Africans -- about 4.7 million people -- are living with HIV/AIDS HIV/AIDS Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome . In his speech, Archbishop Ndungane said AIDS is not a sin and apologized for the church's often-judgmental approach to the illness. |
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