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Religious fanatics an obstacle to AIDS care

    JOHANNESBURG

    The Kamwokya Christian Caring Community (KCCC), a Ugandan faith-based organisation, says local Churches are hampering HIV/AIDS treatment by promoting faith as an alternative to antiretroviral medication.

    KCCC director Francis Mbazira recently told a Uganda AIDS Commission (UAC) meeting in the capital, Kampala, that HIV-positive people were abandoning their ARVs because they believed their faith would cure them.

    The local New Vision newspaper quoted him as saying, "Some Churches are frustrating our efforts of treating HIV/AIDS. They tell our patients to stop taking the drugs, saying God will heal them. This is very dangerous."

    Mbazira alleged there was evidence that members of Pentecostal Church congregations were not returning for their next dose of ARVs after attending services, and urged the UAC to clamp down on misleading sermons.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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