The Chronicle

BULAWAYO, Monday, September 9, 1991 — The Zimbabwe National Traditional Healers’ Association has lined up a number of Aids workshops for its members whom it said risked contracting the dreaded disease through wrong methods of administering treatment.

Addressing more than 1 000 delegates to the oneday Zinatha congress in Gweru at the weekend, the association’s president, Professor Gordon Chavunduka, said the majority of Zinatha members risked contracting Aids since a number of Aids patients under the care of Zinatha members is increasing everyday as more and more patients are discharged from hospitals, said Professor Chavunduka.

He said Zinatha, which had conducted 30 workshops on Aids since 1988, plans to increase the number of workshops so that all its members become conversant with the safe methods of treating Aids patients.

Prof Chavunduka said it was Zinatha’s goal to afford all its members an opportunity to attend workshops for their own safety. He said Zinatha with the assistance of donor agencies and the Ministry of Health, was organising the workshops, whose main objectives were to teach healers safe methods of administering treatment to Aids patients and to identify Aids victims from symptoms of the diseases.

Turning to problems of traditional healers who practised without licences, Prof Chavunduka said the association had for the past 10 years failed to solve the problem.

He said despite regular visits by inspectors from Zinatha to different parts of the country, a number of healers still continued to practise without licences.