AT LAST there is now one African state bold enough to legislate against its traditional healers who dare suggest that the rape of a virgin, a disabled person or an albino, will cure AIDS. There must be a cure for AIDS somewhere, but it is probably locked up in a laboratory elsewhere in the world. Certainly not in Africa!
In a country where newspapers and radios almost daily advertise various cures for AIDS, the spread of the virus is actually accelerated when the revered traditional healers take it upon themselves to spread their false rumours which they claim will eliminate the problem!The fact remains that they omit to inform anyone that any unprotected sexual act will only spread the virus further.
A UN-funded study in that country last year found that about 60 percent of this nation, aged between 15-49, lack any knowledge about HIV prevention, and sadly, about 14 percent of Malawi’s 12m population are already infected with the HIV virus.
Under new draft legislation, Malawi’s 30,000 traditional healers will, in the near future, be required to register with a Board to be set up by the Ministry of Health.
“Lawmakers began examining Tuesday’s draft legislation aimed to rid HIV/AIDS-plagued Malawi of quacks claiming to cure the virus through such remedies as sex with virgins,” health authorities in Malawi have revealed.
"When it passes into law, all traditional healers claiming to cure AIDS will be dealt with," Mary Shaba, head of HIV/AIDS issues for Malawi's Ministry of Health, told a Parliamentary Committee, having been asked to provide input to the measure before it is submitted to Malawi’s full 193-member Parliament.
"The Act will regulate and protect people from healers who prescribe sex with albinos, the disabled or virgins as a cure for HIV and AIDS," she said of the new Bill which has been drafted in collaboration with Malawi’s traditional healers and the World Health Organisation.
The HIV virus now affects more than 1-in-10 people throughout Malawi, but according to latest reports, there are between 78,000 and 100,000 new infections annually. Furthermore, Shaba did not specify what possible sanctions would be metered out against bogus healing claims for the virus.
(This article is based on a Report received from Blantyre 4.3.08 Sapa-AFP)
READER OPINIONS
Decay, Mexico • na.com Subject: PSSST! MR MAKONI - DO YOU WANT EVERY FEMALE VOTES? Fri, 07 Mar 2008 16:47:43 • Whoever stands up in Zimbabwe and says that every person convicted of rape will be castrated (not sterlised), he is guaranteed to get every female vote in the country. Furthermore, if he goes on to say that if all those prisoners who are currently in prison for rape will opt for castration, they will be released after the operation, (bearing in mind that there is probably no anaesthetic in Zimbabwe right now), he will inevitably get thousands more votes - from their families who want their men at home, regardless.
It should be easy to identify the traditional healers who claimed that the rape of a virgin/albino/disabled person cures AIDS from the rapist.
In such cases, if he goes onto say that our own traditional healers who prompted those same prisoners to do such eveil deeds should also be castrated, (not sterlised), he will surely win the elections hands down. We need men of substance to rule - men who will care for our women and children, men who will bring back the old traditional values.
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