The role of traditional healers in HIV prevention is receiving recognition in Mozambique's Maputo province.
According to the local news agency, AIM, the provincial director of health, Abdul Mussa, said traditional practitioners could act as partners of the Health Ministry by carrying messages to rural communities not reached by the government's anti-AIDS programmes.
The ministry urged the healers to inform, not to misinform, and called on them to abandon claims of AIDS cures in their propaganda.
As part of the country's strategic plan against AIDS, healers have begun a 10-day course on how to prevent sexually transmitted diseases.
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