False healers fuel ARV dropouts in Maun

Boniface Keakabetse | Friday July 25, 2014 12:53

Speaking during a meeting with religious leaders last week, District Health Management Team (DHMT) public health specialist, Christopher Chembe revealed that contrary to the popular prophet’s pronouncements, the mother and her child were still HIV positive.

“He convinced his two congregants to stop taking ARVs saying he had healed them after praying for them,” Chembe said at the Ministers’ Fraternity meeting.

“However, here are medical results from tests conducted on the family on Thursday (last week). The family is still HIV positive.”

Recent media reports quoted the prophet as blasting the Ministry of Health for “ignoring the fact that God heals”.

Chembe said health authorities were concerned about the increase in the instances of religious leaders talking people out of their medical care by invoking healing by God.

“Valuable lives are being lost because some patients stop receiving medical care as they would be under the impression that they have been healed, when this is untrue,” he said. Responding to the revelations, a local religious leader, Apostle Sechele, said all prophets who lead people astray should face the consequences of the law.

“Please inform the Ministers’ Fraternity whenever these issues arise so that punitive actions can be taken,” he said.

“Even in cases where the pastors are convinced that God has healed their followers, they are not supposed to tell them to forget about medical care.

“I once prayed for a boy afflicted with cancer and he was healed. However, I did not tell the family to stop his medical care.”

Meanwhile, the DHMT has expressed concern about the high numbers of people dropping out of the ARV programme. It was revealed that 106 people who were enrolled in the life saving programme dropped out last year.

Major causes driving the dropouts include religious influence, poverty and cultural pressures where some pregnant woman claim their husbands force them to stop taking the drugs.