Traditional healers in Mozambique begin AIDS education
MAPUTO, Mozambique: Traditional healers in Mozambique began a 10-day government course on preventing HIV/AIDS infections on Tuesday.

Organized by Mozambique's National Health Institute, the aim is to get traditional healers to educate and assist people in rural areas that the health ministry can't service.

Speaking at the opening ceremony in Maputo province, Abdul Mussa the provincial director of health said it was necessary for traditional healers to cooperate with mainstream health officials.

Mussa said they could partner with the ministry in the fight against AIDS by educating their patients. The ministry hopes this will help put an end to unscrupulous healers who claim they can cure AIDS.

"At the end of this course, it would be good if participants transmit the message to those who say they can cure the disease,'' said ministry researcher Felisbela Gaspar, who is moderating the course.

The disease has infected more than 1.3 million of Mozambique's 18 million people and is decimating rural farming communities. According to figures from the United Nations, Mozambique will have lost over 20 percent of its agricultural labor force to HIV/AIDS by 2020. - AP