‘Arrest pastors stopping people from taking ARVs’
GOVERNMENT should arrest pastors stopping people living with HIV from taking ARVs, a Siavonga woman has said.
Ms. 5ose Musonda said the mushrooming of churches claiming to be ŏering spiritual solutions to illnesses had the potential to reverse the gains so far recorded by the government in fighting +I9 AI'S pandemic in the area.
Ms Musonda pleaded with the government to act on the clergy in the habit of discouraging +I9 patients from taking their life saving drugs.
“Government must move in Tuickly and identify pastors who stop people living with +I9 aids from taking their life saving drugs or seeking medical help from health institutions,´ she said
Ms. Musonda disclosed that one of her neighbours was now bedridden after she stopped taking A59s after one of the prophets in the area advised her to stay away from her dugs but instead concentrate on taking anointed water.
“Government through the ministry of 1ational *uidance and 5eligious Ăairs should act on these false prophets that are misleading people living with +I9 into believ- ing that anointed water has power to heal them,´ said Ms Musonda.
She said a lot of churches claiming to heal +I9 AI'S had mushroomed in Siavonga, with some of them conducting their alleged miracle healing services in residential areas of ZESCO and in the notorious .anyelele compounds.
Early this year Siavonga 'istrict +ospital reported that only 1,0 0 people were actively receiving treatment out of the , 0 people living with +I9 in the area.
Siavonga has an estimated population of 1, with +I9 prevalence rate standing at above 1 percent due to a high inÀu[ of people visiting the resort town for workshops as well as an inÀu[ of commercial sex workers from urban areas and neighbouring Zimbabwe.