[procaare] Zim Registers AIDS Traditional Healers

["Africast" <procaare@healthnet.org>]

Zim registers AIDS traditional healers
Africast: 15 Jan 2008
http://news.africast.com/africastv/article.php?newsID=63749
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HARARE, January 15 -- Battling to stem the HIV/Aids pandemic, 
Zimbabwe has started a register of traditional healers who claim to 
cure the condition, reports said on Monday.

The crisis-riddled country recently registered an astounding drop 
in HIV/Aids rates, down from one in seven to one in four at the 
beginning of the century.

But efforts to contain the pandemic may be threatened by Zimbabwe's 
economic meltdown, which has seen many patients unable to afford 
doctors and drug fees.

Scores of traditional healers began gathering on Friday at the 
Zimbabwe National Traditional Healers' Association (ZINATHA) 
headquarters in Harare to have themselves registered as genuine 
practitioners.

The healers will be monitored by conventional doctors to see if the 
traditional remedies they prescribe really do improve CD4 counts - 
a measure of white blood cells in HIV-infected people - as 
mainstream anti-retroviral medicines do.

"We want to settle the issue once and for all," said ZINATHA 
secretary for information and publicity Tapera Dzviti.

"Many traditional healers are claiming that they can cure the 
infection and are taking money from people," he said in quotes 
carried by the official Herald daily.

People living with HIV and Aids are invited to come forward to take 
part in the trial. - Sapa