Cape Town - The Cape High Court on Friday issued a ruling preventing a vitamin pill producer from claiming his product was a treatment for AIDS, in a verdict hailed by health advocacy groups.

Ruling on a case brought by the group Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), judge Dumasini Zondi barred vitamin entrepreneur Matthias Rath from claiming his product, VitaCell, was a treatment for AIDS, the South African news agency Sapa reported.

The court also ruled that clinical trials which Rath and his Dr. Rath Foundation were conducting in black townships were unlawful and banned them from carrying out any further trials.

He ordered that Rath not publish advertisements touting the supposed anti-AIDS benefits of his VitaCell until he had submitted the product to the Medicines Control Council.

Judge Zondi also said Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang and her department had a duty to investigate Rath's activities.

The judge said the minister and her director general - who both opposed the TAC court application - had a duty to take "reasonable measures" to prevent Rath from conducting trials and from advertising VitaCell.

In an initial reaction, the health advocacy group Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) hailed the ruling as a victory for the law and for science.

"This judgement this morning is a victory for the rule of law and the scientific governance of medicine," TAC spokesman Nathan Geffen told journalists at a media briefing.

"Over the last decade in this country ... a culture of impunity has been created such that charlatans like Matthias Rath can get away with deceiving vulnerable people into taking snake oils such that those people end up progressing to AIDS and dying," he said, according to the Sapa report.

Geffen said the TAC was aware of at least 12 people who had died of AIDS after going to Rath's clinics and not seeking appropriate treatment at public health clinics. (dpa)