HIVEX limited used to offer an unproven electromagnetic therapy as a treatment for HIV at a facility in Durban. Following pressure from various quarters, this facility has recently been closed down.

Every now and again someone calls the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) office hoping to enlist our help in promoting some new miracle HIV treatment. Obviously we’re the wrong people to call. Our standard response is to ask for the published evidence. Sometimes we’ll be e-mailed some trial findings that invariably fall short of substantiating their claims. Most of the time though, all we get is testimonials.

Today, on World AIDS Day the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) will picket at the Durban offices of HIVEX Limited and demand that they stop offering HIVEX as a treatment for HIV. This follows a remarkable letter that HIVEX sent to TAC and an investigation by the television programme Special Assignment.

HIVEX is a company that promotes a Russian device that it claims "uses electro magnetism to target specific proteins in the HIV virus with the aim of disabling the virus and rendering it ineffective, so that cells stop dying and the immune system can regenerate." They make their claims on various websites, including a company Facebook page. They were also featured earlier this year in a TimesLive video puff piece, but that was taken down after the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) complained to the editor that the ...