AIDS denialism

Main article: AIDS denialism

A small number of activists question the connection between HIV and AIDS, the existence of HIV, or the validity of current treatment methods (even going so far as to claim that the drug therapy itself was the cause of AIDS deaths). Though these claims have been examined and thoroughly rejected by the scientific community, they continue to be promulgated through the Internet and have had a significant political impact. In South Africa, former President Thabo Mbeki's embrace of AIDS denialism resulted in an ineffective governmental response to the AIDS epidemic that has been blamed for hundreds of thousands of AIDS-related deaths.