Harry van der Zee & homeopathy in the developing world

The Voice of Young Science (VoYS) have published a letter condemning a homeopathy conference, ‘Homeopathy for Developing Countries’, organised by Harry van der Zee and featuring blog regular Jeremy Sherr, in the Netherlands on the 6th June.  VoYS point out that:

Many people in developing countries urgently need access to evidence-based medical information and to the most effective means of treating these dangerous diseases. The promotion of homeopathy as effective or cheaper makes this difficult task even harder. It puts lives at risk, undermines conventional medicine and spreads misinformation.

VoYS will be shocked to read about the latest article from van der Zee in the online journal Interhomeopathy about his Amma project.  The Amma project is based on the belief that musical can be embedded with ‘resonances’ that can cure AIDS and malaria, this ludicrous idea has been presented at the Society of Homeopaths (SoH) conference in 2007 where it attracted considerable condemnation.  Van der Zee and his supporters have ignored this criticism and have now taken their ideas to the developing world.

I’m in Kenya and am just back from my second trip to Congo and Burundi. I cannot hide my excitement about the results I’ve seen there, nor do I wish to. Potentially this Amma concept can grow very fast as the investment in terms of time and funds to implement it in a clinic is minimal. The clinic in Congo is already planning to start mobile clinics for villages and to open more clinics in larger communities. Connections have been made from Burundi to Tanzania and Rwanda to also start clinics there. Among the nurses the interest to know more about homeopathy grows and a program with advanced courses to learn to also use classical homeopathy for all those cases where a genus epidemicus approach is insufficient will hopefully follow soon.

This, like Jeremy Sherr’s activities in Tanzania, is utterly abhorrent, immoral and profoundly unethical.  VoYS are right to draw attention to the madness of homeopaths whose belief in their abilities is evangelical rather than rational, a triumph of faith over reason and morality.

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The latest deceit from Jeremy Sherr

Jeremy Sherr, the homeopath conducting unethical treatments in Tanzania, made the claim on his blog that:

When I was in South Africa 5 years ago, we had designed a very complex trial together with the Nelson Mandela hospital in Durban.

Well blogger Warhelmet, whose comments here are always appreciated, has contacted the Nelson Mandela hospital and obtained this reply:

Please note that Mr Jeremy Sherr has no association with the University of KwaZulu-Natal and that its Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine has not conducted any research with Mr Sherr.

Looks like another lie to add to the litany of Mr Sherr’s misdeeds.  In summary Mr Sherr has:

1. claimed the support of the Muhumbili University of Health Sciences in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.  This is not true.
2. claimed the support of the Department of Integrative Medicine at the University of Maryland, USA. This is not true.
3. shown disregard for established notions of medical ethics.
4. may be in breach of Tanzanian law
5. caused the Society of Homeopaths (SoH) to lie on his behalf

The Homeopathic Action Trust (HAT), the SoH affiliated charity and Sherr’s funders, have had concerns about Mr Sherr put to them.  They refused to take action.

Mr Sherr remains fairly blase about all the allegations raised against him, dismissing all concerns as the activities of “a close group of the bloggers’ friends swimming around in their own swill“.

It is worth remembering that Mr Sherr is a highly respected homeopath whose teaching are admired by many other homeopaths and whose Dynamis school teaches many students.  In many ways Mr Sherr is one of the most respected members of his profession.  No homeopath has criticised Mr Sherr on this blog, they endorse what he does.  Mr Sherr’s failings are the failings of the homeopathic profession.

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The Homeopathic Action Trust is controlled by the Society of Homeopaths

Over the past few months the Society of Homeopaths (SoH) have been pitiful in their condemnation of Jeremy Sherr, refusing to condemn the unauthorised experimentation on terminally ill AIDS patients in Tanzania, merely offering up a dishonest press release in response to a Private Eye article.

Now I understand why – the Society of Homeopaths and their members control Sherr’s funders, the Homeopathic Action Trust (HAT).

HAT was formed from an amalgamation of The Society of Homeopaths Trust Company Limited and Friends of Homeopathy. Both of these organisations were part of the SoH and were used to fund student bursaries and give grants for homeopathic research.  These functions have now been combined into HAT with the SoH providing funds and facilities during the merger (according to 2004 accounts – PDF).

Although HAT appears independent of the SoH, with the SoH website not claiming any links with them, this is not the case as these clauses from HAT’s Articles of Association show:

At least 60% of HAT voting members must be longterm members of the SoH and the SoH are represented by at least two members of the Committee of Management.

It is now no surprise that the SoH have not criticised Sherr or HAT.  The funding of Jeremy Sherr is the responsibility of the SoH and their members.

Ben Goldacre has released a new chapter of his Badscience book today detailing the activities of Matthias Rath, the quack nutritionist who believed vitamin supplementation can cure AIDS and who lied, cheated and harassed his way into carrying out experiments on terminally ill AIDS patients in South Africa.  I have compared Jeremy Sherr to Rath in the past, I now extend that comparison to the Society of Homeopaths and their members.

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The Homeopathic Action Trust continue to support Jeremy Sherr

On the 6th of March the Homeopathy Action Trust (HAT) generously allowed Angus Wood to put forward many of the concerns people had about the actions of the HAT funded Jeremy Sherr in Tanzania.  They have now issued their response to these concerns in a letter to Mr Wood:

HAT does and has acted within the law and its own governing documents in supporting Jeremy Sherr’s work in Africa

Here is Mr Wood’s response:

In many ways I’m not suprised by this outcome. I’m disappointed, very disappointed. I understand that any admission of wrongdoing could have legal ramifications and any statement on the ethical aspects of this could also be seen by the HAT as being too dangerous an arena to even step in to but “we don’t think we’re breaking the law” from a registered charity limited company is a bit weak.

HAT have been further pressed by Mr Wood to respond to the ethical concerns surrounding the work of Jeremy Sherr but have so far declined to reply.

It is not surprising that HAT have failed to respond.  The Trustees of HAT include Francis Treuherz, former editor of the SoH magazine, Simon Taffler, a graduate of Jeremy Sherr’s Dynamis School, Jacqueline Anne Becker, a homeopath at Nelson’s – a favourite of Prince Charles, and Mary English, who believes in the healing powers of shipwrecks.   This motley collection are very much the homeopathic establishment and would not dream of criticising Sherr, a mentor of many. Their failure to act is merely representative of the whole of homeopathy, supporters of Mr Sherr have left several hundred comments on this blog in support of Mr Sherr, his claims that Homeopathy can treat AIDS and homeopathy in general despite my commentators taking the time to explain just exactly what the problems are with Mr Sherr (and I am very grateful to these commentators).  Homeopaths are also instituitionally dishonest, the Society of Homeopaths (SoH), who awarded a Fellowship to Mr Sherr, have claimed they retracted this award in 2005, despite telling me in 2007 and that he as still a Fellow.  Not only that but I had informed the SoH of Mr Sherr’s intentions at that time, they took no action and made no statement until Private Eye reported on Mr Sherr – and then they lied.  Further evidence of homeopathic dishonesty comes from a bizarre correspondence I had with a representative of the Dynamis School who refused to comment on Mr Sherr, stated that they had nothing to do with him or his school – despite being listed as a contact on the Dynamis website and emailing me from a dynamis.edu email address!

I think it was very naive of Mr Wood to expect a sensible response from HAT.  They are an organisation composed of people who believe sugar pills can cure diseases and shipwrecks have hidden powers.  They lack the education, experience and intellect to understand medical ethics.  That they have funded and endorsed Sherr’s excesses is further evidence of the complete absence of sensible behaviour and rational thinking within the entire homeopathic profession.  I hope, behind the scenes (and I know they read this blog), that HAT will take quiet steps to avoid a repeat of the Sherr situation but I doubt it – they are also funding the work of someone who believes that music can cure AIDS.

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Society of Homeopaths respond on Sherr – dishonestly

After a week in which Jeremy Sherr managed to get a mention in Private Eye and his funders, the Homeopathic Action Trust (HAT), were treated to a presentation on why people have concerns about him, the Society of Homeopaths (SoH) have finally made a public statement on Jeremy Sherr in response to the Private Eye piece.  Sadly this statement squeals and squawks in the familiar dishonest tone and tenor typical of the organisation.

Jeremy Sherr – blind to ethics and reason

After reporting on the actions of the homeopath Jeremy Sherr who is carrying out unethical experiments on terminally ill AIDS patients in Tanzania my blog has become inundated with homeopaths supporting his actions.  These range from those I have never heard of to Dana Ullman, an extremely prominent and notorious writer on homeopathy, and incidentally one who has some experience of the heavy hand of the law as a result of practicing homeoapthy.  Not one supporter of homeoapthy appears to have a problem with Sherr’s actions.

Perhaps I have been remiss in not making clear the international norms for medical research, and research on AIDS specificially.  First off there is the Declaration of Helsinki, the World Medical Association’s document guiding the use of human patients in medical research.  These are its basic principles for medical research:

Jeremy Sherr does not act alone, but with the support of the homeopathic establishment

I, and others, have been doing some digging and complaining about the activities of Mr Sherr, the homeopath carrying out his healing fantasies by human experimentation in Tanzania.   There is an excellent summary of the situation by Martin over at Layscience who also has another post examining Mr Sherr’s recent attempts to edit and censor his blog as well as an examination of the dishonest defence of his actions.  Our investigations have revealed that not only is Jeremy Sherr making false claims of academic support but that he could not have achieved his goals of taking homeopathy to Tanzania without the support of sections of the homeopathic establishment.

Jeremy Sherr – a Rath in the making?

Via Ben Goldacre’s miniblog I have come across this blog from the homeopath Jeremy Sherr.  Mr Sherr is a Fellow of the Society of Homeopaths (SoH), found and principal of the Dynamis homeopathic school and a subject of one my earliest blog posts.  That post was critical of Mr Sherr’s stated aims of carrying out trials investigating the effectiveness of homeopathy in treating AIDS and malaria.  This prompted me to email both Mr Sherr and the SoH  expressing concerns.  Mr Sherr did not reply although the SoH did stating that as he was a Fellow rather than a Member he was not bound by their code of conduct.  At that time Mr Sherr was only planning his trials, he is now carrying them out in Tanzania.

The plural of anecdote is not data – except for homeopaths

‘The plural of anecdote is not data’ is an aphorism often heard in sceptical circles.  This phrase is typically used to point out that subjective personal experiences do not become objective impartial evidence when collated.  The flaws and biases inherent in any subjective measurement do not cancel each other out when overlaid.  This is why anecdotes, or case reports, are of relatively little value compared to blinded randomised controlled trials when determining the effectiveness of a course of treatment for the purposes of evidence based medicine.  While an observant doctor may notice that a particular patient improved greatly on a novel combination of drugs and submit a report on this to a journal we cannot properly assess if this patient got better because of this novel combination until a proper clinical trial has been performed.  The patient may have been lucky, the doctor’s analysis flawed or some other factor unknown to the doctor induced the effect.  By carrying out a properly controlled trial we can eliminate or reduce subjective measurements and assess whether or not a population of patients on the novel drug treatment perform better than a control population.

Homeopaths in Ghana

In recent weeks we’ve seen the beginning of the end for AIDS quackery in South Africa with Matthias Rath dropping his libel claims against The Guardian and Ben Goldacre and more recently the replacement of Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, known as Dr Beetroot for her belief that healthy eating rather than ARVs is the best treatment for AIDS, with Barbara Hogan in the recent political upheaval.  Unfortunately this does not represent the end of the promotion of quackery within Africa.

Why homeopaths will always be mad about malaria

Dr *T and the Quackometer are reporting some superficial good news today – both Helios and Ainsworths, homeopathic remedy shops, appear to have stopped selling malaria nosodes – remedies claimed to prevent malaria.  These remedies, needless to say, are indistinguishable from blank water or sugar pill or indeed from any other homeopathic remedy except by the label.  You might think that this would represent the beginning of the end for the dangerous tendency of homeopaths to insist that their remedies can treat, cure or prevent malaria through homeoprophylaxis.  Sadly this is wishful thinking.

The Society of Homeopaths issue a challenge over Ralf Jeutter

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On Saturday September the 6th Professor Edzard Ernst wrote an article for The Guardian’s Comment is Free site criticising homeopaths attitude to immunisation and the complicity of some pharmacists in selling homeopathic vaccines, homeoprophylaxis.  Ernst focussed in particular on Ralf Jeutter, vice chair of the board of directors of the Society of Homeopaths (SoH) and a strong advocate of homeoprophylaxis.  Ernst alleges that Jeutter is in breach of both the advice offered by the SoH on homeoprophylaxis and their code of ethics.

This may sound familiar to readers of this blog.  In November last year I wr

Homeopaths in sacka with Big Quacka – lacka ethics and evidence

I have just noticed that Nelsons, a major supplier and manufacturer of homeopathic pseudomedicine and assorted quackery, have developed a PR toolkit for homeopaths with an organisation called 4homeopathy. Now I’ve never heard of 4homeopathy and google reveals little apart from a defunct website, however they are described as ‘media specialists’. Perhaps they are some dubious front group, the homeopathic equivalent of Trotyskyist groupuscules, either way I’m not interested. What is of interest to me is the motivations, means and methods of this toolkit and the now public sally of Big Quacka into the fray before Homeopathy Awareness Week (HAW) 14th-21st June.

Hilary Fairclough and AIDS idiocy (again)

I’ve just come across this astounding press release from the College of Practical Homeopathy which is recognised by the Society of Homeopaths (SoH) and the Alliance of Registered Homeopaths (ARH) amongst others.

DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO TREATING COMPLEX DISEASE

By Hilary Fairclough

Sunday April 27^th 2008, 10am -5pm

College of Practical Homeopathy

Homeopaths are required to treat increasingly complex disease. This requires an understanding of a full range of homeopathic prescribing styles and methodologies.

The ability to deal with disease processes, suppression of natural diseases and intense emotional states related to pathology is needed. Also important is the ability to deal with illness in the context of societal factors that have important implications for disease progression and homeopathic treatment.

Hilary Fairclough, a homeopath and a former nurse, set up The Maun Homeopathy project in Botswana in 2002. Since then about 1500 people have been treated for Aids and HIV.

Hilary Fairclough is going to share her immense experience and knowledge gained from running the Maun project. The day will cover:

· Various homeopathic analysis techniques used in the project

· The Triad Method

· Using the Triad Method alongside conventional medicine

· Using this method for children and adults, similarities and differences and implications for case-taking and management

· What to look for in follow-ups

· Importance of miasmatic prescribing

· Understanding posology

· Homeopathic principles related to the triad method

· Palliation of incurable conditions

At the end of the day you will have an increased knowledge of treating difficult cases including HIV and Aids with confidence.

BOOKING AND PAYMENT:

Seminar: Treating Complex Disease

Date: Sunday, April 27th, 2008

Time: 10am – 5.00pm

Venue: College of Practical Homeopathy, 760 High Rd, North Finchley

Cost: CPH students: £40.00

CPH Graduates: £45.00

Non-CPH students and graduates: £50.00

Cheques payable to: Nimisha Parekh

Please return the booking form with your payment to: Nimisha Parekh, 1491 High Rd , Whetstone, London N20 9PJ

CPD certificates will be provided. Refreshments will be served. There is a wide choice of restaurants in the area for a great lunch. Parking is free on Sundays.

Hilary Fairclough is the homeopath who runs the Maun Homeopathy Clinic in Botswana and gave a SoH organised talk last year resulting in numerous critical articles from Ben Goldacre, Nick Cohen, David Colquhoun, Orac and many others.

You would have hoped that the homeopath profession would have taken on this criticism and responded appropriately. However, from this press release it seems business as usual in the world of conducting unethical homeopathic treatments in third world countries without fear of professional misconduct charges. Still what can you expect from a profession that is utterly incapable of forming a coherent regulatory body. The most depressing thing about this press release is the small print in italics at the bottom.

CPD certificates will be provided.

Certificates of Professional Development (CPD) mean that this course is recognised as part of the ongoing professional development of homeopaths, a requirement of the SoH and ARH.  This, together with other examples, is yet further proof that homeopaths are dangerously deluded and need to be independently regulated to avoid the spread of such counterknowledge.  Or that the profession should be abolished except for those medically qualified homeopaths who are regulated by their strict professional bodies and would b e statutorily prohibited from such idiocy.

Adventures in paediatric homeopathy

Let me take you on a journey through the homeopathic education system. I recently came across this site, Adventures in Medicine, that offers a postgraduate course in paediatric homeopathy. The rationale for the course is described as follows:

There is a large gap in the training of homoeopaths when it comes to treating children. Most homoeopaths have to struggle for years to gain the knowledge and experience required to create a successful practice in paediatrics.

This course is designed to bridge that gap by providing training in paediatric care by experienced teachers who are experts in their field.

It is also designed to empower and support students to enable them to practice with knowledge and confidence in what is often a very little understood area of homoeopathy.

CORH – a quorum of quackery (part two)

At long last here is part two of CORH. This post is primarily to make the public the back stabbing, money grabbing and devious actions of the main contributors. There will be another post over the weekend looking at the fallout, plans for the future and the apparent defection of prominent members of one society to another.

Faculty of Homeopaths are just as silly as the Society of Homeopaths

I have just come across this press release from the Faculty of Homeopaths (FoH), the medically qualified scion of the homeopath industry. The FoH have been fairly muted in their criticisms of the homeopathy can cure AIDS/cancer/malaria claptrap and have refused to criticise organisations representing the non-medically qualified homeopaths. However they have emphasised that:

Society of Homeopaths – unethical lying nitwits

Jayne Thomas Vice Chair of the Society of Homeopaths (SoH) and chair of the Professional Standards Committee and Professional Conduct Director was debating Professor David Colquhoun over their shameful AIDS conference this morning on the Today programme (listen again, 15 minutes in).

Le Canard Noir over at the Quackometer has made an excellent point that when Prof Colquhoun brought up the infamous Newsnight malaria sting the SoH again changed their story, effectively making them liars. This has led the little black duck to conclude

Society of Homeopaths in untruthful hypocritical AIDS press release non-shock *update*

The Society of Homeopaths (SoH) have just released a press release justifying their astonishing AIDS conference. If you remember both Ben Goldacre and Nick Cohen have been highly critical of this conference. Fisked for your pleasure and my blood pressure below.

Peter Fisher lays the smack down on the Society of Homeopaths

Well I’ve been too busy to finish the second part of yesterdays post so I thought I would share this amusing little tale from the quick response section of an old BMJ letter by Ernst & Schmidt on the poor advice offered by homeopaths, amongst others, on MMR. The contents of the letter are hardly surprising, homeopaths go against government advice on MMR and GPs don’t respond to patients emails. So incompetence in the alternative and arrogance in the orthodox, not exactly news.

The interesting story is in the comments. One of the first responders is Dr Peter Fisher, big cheese in the Faculty of Homeopaths (FoH), supreme leader of the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital and the Queens own Woo Master.