Johannesburg, South Africa ? South Africa’s government scaled back the influence of its minister for AIDS policy, pilloried for questioning the effectiveness of anti-retroviral drug treatments and promoting beetroot, garlic and African potatoes as ways to fight AIDS.

A group of international scientists called for Health Minister Dr. Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, nicknamed “Dr. Beetroot,” to be fired, and they labeled South Africa’s program “inefficient and immoral.”

Government spokesman Themba Maseko defended the minister, but said Friday the Cabinet had appointed a committee led by Deputy President Phumzilie Mlambo-Ngcuka to oversee the implementation of the country’s AIDS program.

In an open letter to President Thabo Mbeki on Wednesday, 81 international AIDS scientists called the health minister an embarrassment to South Africa who has undermined HIV science and who has no international respect.

The scientists include American Nobel Laureate David Baltimore and Dr. Robert Gallo, a co-discoverer of the virus that causes AIDS and developer of the first HIV blood test. They called for an end to South Africa’s “disastrous, pseudoscientific policies” and urged Mbeki to remove the health minister immediately.

With the letter, the scientists joined mounting calls by AIDS activists and opposition parties for the president to fire Tshabalala-Msimang.

South Africa has an estimated 5.5 million people infected with HIV, a number second only to India and one that amounts to about an eighth of estimated cases worldwide. On average, more than 900 people die of the disease each day in South Africa. The government said Thursday that the adult death rate had climbed significantly over a seven-year period, largely because of AIDS.

Mbeki previously has expressed doubts about the connection between HIV and AIDS, and along with Tshabalala-Msimang has questioned the effectiveness of anti-retroviral drugs in treating the disease.

Tshabalala-Msimang’s office said in a statement Friday that there was a campaign aimed at deliberately misrepresenting the government’s program to fight the disease.