Ignore herbalists, prophets; they don’t have cure for AIDS – Commission

The Ghana AIDS Commission (GAC) says the activities of some herbalists, prophets and other religious groups who claim to have a cure for HIV continues to hinder the management of the disease.

In 2018, a visit by Citi News and the Eastern Regional Technical Support Unit of the GAC to over 70 prayer camps in the Eastern Region saw a number of people operating under the guise of having a cure for HIV.

Mr Atuahene Kyeremeh, the acting Director-General for the Commission in a Citi News interview called on the public to disregard claims by herbalists, prophets and other prayer groups who say they have a cure.

“We continue to say that there is no cure for HIV but people turn to believe claims from false prophets and other herbalists who say they have a cure for HIV. The Food and Drugs Authority together with other agencies have made researches into these claims of cure and have come boldly to confirm that they are false but yet still people are being deceived into believing there is a cure”.

“As it stands now, there is no cure for HIV, the only cure we know is the antiretroviral therapy which we always encourage PLHIV to stick to. As a commission, we will be very happy and glad if there is a cure for HIV but we do not want innocent people to be deceived by some group in the society. We are not saying prayers are bad, it is faith-based but people are moving to prayer camps in search for cure instead of the hospitals for treatment because they have been told by someone that there is cure at the prayer camp and these kinds of misinformation are hindering our work as a commission to manage the spread”.

He added: “I want to call on the general public to be very careful about these prophets and herbalists and rather resort to the antiretroviral therapy which is tested and proven”.