Dr. Matthias Rath, M.D. is the worldrenowned scientist and physician who led the scientific breakthrough towards the natural prevention of cardiovascular disease and cancer. He is a member of the American Heart Association, the New York Academy of Sciences and other international scientific organizations. The late Dr. Pauling, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and Peace stated that Dr. Rath’s discoveries are so important that they threaten the very existence of the pharmaceutical investment industry based on patented drugs. Dr. Rath is internationally recognized for his civil courage to stand up against the interests of the pharmaceutical industry. The Dr. Rath Health Foundation is a leader in research and education of natural health approaches. In the official welcome document for the World Summit in Johannesburg in August 2002, Dr. Rath outlined an international health effort 'Health for All by the Year 2020'. This program highlighted the fact that today's most common diseases can largely be eliminated by optimum use of vitamins and other micronutrients. At this World Summit the health ministers of the sub-Saharan countries including South Africa, Angola, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia, and Zimbabwe met. They declared the promotion of community-based nutrition programs and called on governments to "accelerate regional interventions aimed at reducing micronutrient malnutrition through fortification of foods." Many governments followed and adopted natural health policies to improve the health of their people, among them Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, China and others. In the meantime the UN-Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) launched an international campaign "Food is the first medicine for HIV/AIDS." UNICEF, the UNOrganization for children, followed and concluded in a recent report: "Controlling vitamin and mineral deficiencies is an affordable opportunity to improve the lives of two billion people and strengthen the pulse of economic development." With his call for a World Health Alphabetization (WHA) Dr. Rath takes his advocacy one step further towards health improvement on a global scale. He chose to publish this programmatic call in South Africa because the South African government is an internationally recognized leader in the battle of mankind to liberate itself from the yoke of the pharmaceutical 'business with disease' and to establish health as a human right.

No Freedom, No Democracy
Without Health Literacy!

Blueprint for Building a Healthy Nation

World Health Alphabetization (WHA):

1. Disease - the urgency. More than 90% of the people in the developing and industrialized world die from lack of nutrition, namely deficiencies in micronutrients and hunger. These conditions are caused by poverty and health illiteracy and they are preventable. The global dissemination of nutritional health information is a precondition for the prevention and eradication of today's most common diseases.
2. Illiteracy - the urgency. More than one billion people in the world are illiterate and are therefore deprived of any dignified life. Learning to read and write - while overcoming health illiteracy - will empower them to improve their living conditions and ensure literacy for their children and future generations.
3. Breaking the silence - the urgency. The fact that billions of people live in illiteracy and die from preventable diseases is no coincidence. These facts are the direct result of knowledge - including essential health information - being deliberately withheld from billions of people by those who build their economic power on keeping the people of the earth illiterate with respect to their minds and their bodies.
4. The mission of the World Health Alphabetization (WHA) is to terminate health illiteracy as well as general illiteracy for this and for all future generations of mankind. This is the precondition to eradicate today's most common diseases, save the lives of billions of people and enable them to lead a dignified life. This campaign will not rest until these goals are achieved.
5. The 'teachers' of the WHA. The WHA campaign invites people of all nations, races and religions, young and old, lay people and professionals to inform themselves about the critical role of nutrition and micronutrients in maintaining optimum health and to become health teachers carrying the WHA campaign in their communities. The WHA is a global effort carried by every single individual and by governments anywhere in the world who recognize their responsibility.
6. The 'schools' of the WHA. The teaching rooms of the WHA are not confined to regular schools or doctor's offices. The basic scientific health information is so clear and logical that it can and will be spread in every living room, library, commuter bus, church hall, union meeting, parliamentary session, corporate boardroom and just about everywhere that people meet.
7. The 'school books' of the WHA. Any book describing the role of vitamins and other micronutrients in the metabolism of the cells of our bodies, any book or information medium describing the health benefits of micronutrients in optimizing health and preventing diseases can serve as an educational tool.The most important teaching tool, however, is word of mouth carrying the health information to everyone.
8. The key health message of the WHA. This global health education campaign will focus on basic health information that directly affects the life of every single person on earth: Health and disease are determined at the level of millions of cells in our body and a lack of vitamins and other essential micronutrients is the most frequent form of cellular malfunction and - therefore - the cause of today's most common diseases.
9. The scientific basis of the WHA. The scientific facts about the critical role of vitamins, minerals and other micronutrients as life-saving biological fuels (co-enzymes) have been established for almost a century and can be studied in any textbook of biology, biochemistry and cell physiology. While the textbooks of natural science take this basic health information for granted, it is a sobering fact that this critical information is almost completely absent from the textbooks of medicine.
10. Two micronutrients - the scientific focus of the WHA campaign - will change the course of history. Among all micronutrients the human body requires for optimum health, two have such an outstanding role that they supercede all others: Vitamin C and the natural amino acid Lysine. These two micronutrients cannot be produced by the human body, yet they determine the rate of production of collagen molecules and thereby the stability of the entire connective tissue in our bodies. The stability of the connective tissue, in turn, is the key factor preventing the development and spread of any disease.
11. The WHA terminates a century of silencing the truth. The essential cellular function of Vitamin C, Lysine and other micronutrients for human health were discovered almost a century ago. The discovery of these natural, non-patentable substances posed an immediate threat to the pharmaceutical ‘investment business with disease,’ based on patented, synthetic drugs. The most hideous crime in human history has been the withholding of the life-saving information from billions of people about the essential need for optimum intake of Vitamin C and Lysine. This deliberate obstruction of fundamental health knowledge has weakened tissue stability in the bodies of billions of people and rendered them prey to the development of any disease.
    This century long obstruction of essential health information was deliberately taken by the interest groups behind the pharmaceutical 'business with diseases' in order to promote diseases and turn the bodies of billions of people into a market place for the 'investment in disease'. The WHA terminates this global health illiteracy that has thus far cost the lives of tens of billions of people.
12. The expected fierce opposition against the WHA by the pharmaceutical cartel. The health illiteracy of the people of the world, organized by the pharmaceutical cartel, is a deliberate means to continue and expand its global business with disease. Withholding life-saving information about natural health was the precondition for the unparalleled growth of the pharmaceutical industry over the past century, making it today's largest and most profitable investment business. The WHA threatens the very existence of this investment business, which is likely to fight back with all means it has available.
13. The need for the WHA to expose the dimension of this tragedy. The dictionary definition of the term 'terror' is the exertion of violence by a small group trying to force its special interests upon others without any consideration for the lives of its victims. The special interests behind the pharmaceutical ‘investment business with disease’ precisely fit this description. The fact that billions of people have died as a direct result of this 'pharmaceutical terror' is evident to everyone. For the same reason the Vatican recently accused the pharmaceutical cartel of 'genocide' - particularly in connection with its business conduct in Africa.
14. The need for the WHA to promote the message "Make Health - Not War." The pharmaceutical investment business has been unmasked as an organized fraud system that promises health, yet economically thrives from the continuation of diseases. The unmasking of this fraud on a global scale threatens the collapse of this multi-trillion dollar investment business. In order to distract from their own actions the pharmaceutical cartel and its political stakeholders have launched a global ‘fight against terrorism.’ The war against Iraq - a war launched under false pretenses - was deliberately promoted by the political stakeholders of the two leading pharmaceutical export nations of the world - the USA and Great Britain. Exposing these interests and showing the direct connection between health and peace on one side and war and disease on the other is an essential part of the WHA campaign.
15. The WHA corrects the tragic failure of the WHO. The World Health Organization (WHO) - the United Nations body founded half a century ago to promote world health - has thus far failed to meet its objectives. Infiltrated by pharmaceutical interests its programs on nutritional health education were largely abandoned and replaced by pro - motional campaigns for profitable pharmaceutical drugs.
    The charter of the WHO has been turned into its opposite by the so called ‘Codex Alimentarius Commission’, an effort driven by the pharmaceutical cartel to ban natural health therapies worldwide in order to secure its global monopoly on health. Thus, there exists the objective need for a global effort - independent of the WHO - that both the people of the world and their governments can unite behind to improve everyones health worldwide.
16. The WHA represents the health and economic interests of the entire developing world. From its home base of a handful of industrialized countries the pharmaceutical cartel exerts its deadly grip on almost all nations and their citizens. With the availability of effective and affordable natural health approaches there no longer exists the need for the nations of the world to succumb to the pharmaceutical monopoly on world health. Developing nations can now focus their scarce financial resources on implementing public health policies based upon effective, natural approaches and save billions. This money becomes immediately available to meet other urgent social needs. The citizens and governments of almost 200 countries in the world will directly benefit from the termination of the pharmaceutical ‘investment business with disease.’
17. The historic responsibility of Africa. During the last half-century the nations of Africa have liberated themselves from century long colonialism and from apartheid. These recent triumphs in an unequal battle between the oppressed and their oppressors now render a particular responsibility to the nations of Africa to lead this liberation of human health from the yoke of the pharmaceutical cartel. By promoting the WHA the people of Africa and their governments can take the lead in this global movement to terminate health illiteracy.
18. The historic opportunity of Africa. 500 hundred years ago the people of Europe took the lead and liberated themselves from the yoke of illiteracy against the fierce opposition of their rulers. The invention of the printing press and the dissemination of knowledge in the form of books was their main weapon in this liberation battle against illiteracy. This explosion of knowledge gave the European nations the decisive advantage to mobilize intellectual and economic resources to become the dominant continent for centuries.
    There now exists the historic opportunity for a similar step forward for all mankind: the termination of health illiteracy. By taking the lead in promoting the WHA, the African nations can liberate huge financial resources, prosper economically and close the gap to the industrialized world.
19. With billions of people still condemned to illiteracy of mind and body, I call upon everyone to join the World Health Alphabetization campaign.
20. With billions of people continuing to die from preventable diseases - because of health illiteracy - the time to act is now!

Matthias Rath, M.D.

The Dr. Rath Health Foundation Africa is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting research and education in natural health. For more information visit our website, the world's leading online library for science-based natural health information.