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AFRICA: Unlikely HIV/AIDS alliance examined

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

JOHANNESBURG, 7 January (PLUSNEWS) - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Wednesday examined the "unlikely alliance" in Africa between traditional healers and "practitioners of modern medicine" in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Dr Virginia Davis Floyd, a visiting scholar at Spelman College, in Atlanta, Georgia, said 85 percent of people in sub-Saharan Africa received part or all of their health care and health education from traditional healers.

She told the Journal that "Most people in Africa don't have access to primary health care. Since we don't have doctors or nurses in many of these places, the only primary provider is the traditional healer."

The report said traditional healers were now "being courted as the first line of defence against" HIV/AIDS.

[ENDS]

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