Zimbabwe May Muzzle Witchdoctors AIDS Claims

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1993. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Zimbabwe May Muzzle Witchdoctors AIDS Claims

Reuters (10/24/93)

Harare--Because they are a threat to the government's campaign to curb the spread of AIDS, claims of traditional healers that they know a cure may be silenced by a government-ordered news blackout. Witch doctors are profiting from the epidemic sweeping Zimbabwe, so the government may invoke a law banning the promotion of cure claims, says Health Minister Timothy Stamps. The law prohibits promotion of "any medicine, appliance, or article for the alleviation or cure of any venereal disease or diseases affecting the generative organs or functions or any complaint arising from or relating to sexual intercourse." In the past few months, witch doctors have announced a cornucopia of herbal cures fro the deadly virus, but the government has dismissed them, saying that they need to be scientifically proven first. Of Zimbabwe's population of 10 million, some 800,000 people are infected with the AIDS virus.

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