Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang is breaking the law by making unproven claims about the effectiveness of alternative "treatments" for Aids, according to the South African Medical Association.

In a statement on behalf of the association, Sama chairman Dr Kgosi Letlape said any claims of therapeutic effectiveness made without clinical trials and approval by the Medicines Control Council were illegal.

"I implore the minister to refrain from breaking the laws of the country," he said.

"In terms of the laws of this country anything considered therapeutic should be registered for that purpose, and people have to submit proof that it is therapeutic.

"And until that is done, you cannot go onto public fora and claim that it is therapeutic."

Tshabalala-Msimang has been dubbed "Dr Beetroot" because of her advocacy of a beetroot, garlic and lemon diet for people with Aids. Over recent weeks, there have been repeated calls on President Thabo Mbeki to sack her, both for her views and for what Aids activists say is her lack of action on a comprehensive national treatment plan. Letlape said there was no current scientifically proven alternative to antiretrovirals in the treatment of Aids patients with weakened immune systems.

"Antiretroviral medication is the only treatment that is scientifically proven to prolong the lives of people with Aids," he said.

He also said it was regrettable that Tshabalala-Msimang continued to misrepresent the facts about the role of nutrition in the management of Aids.

"The medical profession fully acknowledges the known fact that optimal nutrition is important and beneficial to everybody.

"However the ministers emphasis of the exaggerated value of nutrition as a preferential means to manage and treat Aids is confusing a vulnerable public." (Sapa )