Matthias Rath (born 1955) is a doctor,[1] businessman, and vitamin salesman.[2][3][4][5] He earned his medical degree in Germany.[6] Rath claims that a program of nutritional supplements (which he calls "cellular medicine"), including formulations that he sells, can treat or cure diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and HIV/AIDS.[7][8] These claims are not supported by any reliable medical research.[9][10] Rath runs the Dr. Rath Health Foundation, has been closely associated with Health Now, Inc.,[11] and founded the Dr. Rath Research Institute.
The Sunday Times has described Rath as an "international campaigner for the use of natural remedies" whose "theories on the treatment of cancer have been rejected by health authorities all over the world."[12] On HIV/AIDS, Rath has disparaged the pharmaceutical industry and denounced antiretroviral medication as toxic and dangerous, while claiming that his vitamin pills could reverse the course of AIDS. As a result, Rath has been accused of "potentially endangering thousands of lives" in South Africa, a country with a massive AIDS epidemic where Rath was active in the mid-2000s.[1] The head of Médecins Sans Frontières said of Rath, "This guy is killing people by luring them with unrecognised treatment without any scientific evidence"; Rath attempted to sue him.[9][10][13]
Rath's claims and methods have been widely criticised by medical organisations, AIDS-activist groups, and the United Nations, among others.[4][5][14][15] Former South African President Thabo Mbeki and former Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang have also been criticised by the medical and AIDS-activist community for their perceived support for Rath's claims.[14][16][17] According to doctors with Médecins Sans Frontières,[18] the Treatment Action Campaign (a South African AIDS-activist group)[19] and a former Rath colleague,[20] unauthorised clinical trials run by Rath and his associates, using vitamins as therapy for HIV, resulted in deaths of some participants. In 2008, the Cape High Court found the trials unlawful, banned Rath and his foundation from conducting unauthorised clinical trials and from advertising their products, and instructed the South African Health Department to fully investigate Rath's vitamin trials.[19][21] In 2008, Rath expanded his advertising to Russia, a country where the incidence of HIV/AIDS had been increasing.[1]
Ivanov V, Ivanova S, Roomi MW, Kalinovsky T, Niedzwiecki A, Rath M (2007). "Naturally produced extracellular matrix inhibits growth rate and invasiveness of human osteosarcoma cancer cells". Med. Oncol. 24 (2): 209–17. doi:10.1007/BF02698042. PMID17848746. S2CID2894009.
Roomi MW, Roomi N, Ivanov V, Kalinovsky T, Niedzwiecki A, Rath M (2006). "Inhibition of pulmonary metastasis of melanoma b16fo cells in C57BL/6 mice by a nutrient mixture consisting of ascorbic Acid, lysine, proline, arginine, and green tea extract". Exp. Lung Res. 32 (10): 517–30. doi:10.1080/01902140601098552. PMID17169857. S2CID29037898.