Malawi Ousts Fake AIDS Healers

Lawmakers in Malawi have decided to crack dawn on quacks peddling phony cures for AIDS. The "cures" generally involve having sex with a virgin, an albino, or a disabled person. The legislation is only in draft form right now, but if passed it will require traditional healers to register with the health ministry.

I'll have to ask my sister what she knows about this, since she's been in Malawi for the past four years working on promoting AIDS education. That's why I visited Malawi last year. I had a great time there. I would definitely encourage anyone to visit, but if you plan on driving around the country, make sure you have a four-wheel drive. And if you're brave, you might even try the local specialty: mouse on a stick.

Health/Medicine

Posted on Sun Mar 09, 2008


Comments

"And if you're brave, you might even try the local specialty: mouse on a stick."

Would you like flies with that?
Posted by Cranky Media Guy  on  Sun Mar 09, 2008  at  06:55 PM
How about sex with a disabled albino virgin?

J/P=?
Posted by John Paradox  on  Sun Mar 09, 2008  at  07:51 PM
I have read horrible things on how to rid yourself of AIDS that folklore & local myth suggest. Some of them have turned my stomach.
Posted by Maegan  on  Sun Mar 09, 2008  at  08:26 PM
Agreed, Maegan.. The 'sex with a virgin' one in particular has basically led to gang rape of *very* young girls in many cases..
Posted by Robin Bobcat  on  Mon Mar 10, 2008  at  01:03 AM
Sounds like we should get some of those guys here for our own FDA. Maybe then we could get rid of that quack, Kevin Trudeau.
Posted by KDP  on  Mon Mar 10, 2008  at  08:18 AM
How is the mouse cooked? When I was in Thailand I often had the fried frogskin. Step up to a vendor pick out your frogskin and he would heat it right there over an alcohol flame for a short time, it had been fried earlier, and away you go. It's quite crunchy but I don't know what it tasted like, if I ever did taste it I've forgotten what it tasted like after over 30 years. Probably tasted like chicken.
Posted by Christopher Cole  on  Mon Mar 10, 2008  at  10:23 AM
I haven't tasted frog skin, but frog legs taste pretty much like air. That is, they have very little flavor at all.
Posted by Big Gary  on  Mon Mar 10, 2008  at  12:19 PM
Yeah, a lot of the people in Africa (and elsewhere in the world, for that matter) have some very. . .odd ideas about AIDS and STDs in general. I remember that a lot of guys there were actually bragging about having sexually transmitted diseases (whether they really did have them or not) because they just understood the "sex" part, and thought that having an STD was a sign of sexual prowess. So to their way of thinking, going up to a good-looking girl and saying, "Hey, baby, I've got AIDS" is a good pick-up line. It's a totally different understanding of the world, completely divorced from that of most Western people.

It apparently also makes trying to compile disease statistics there rather tricky at times, too.

And from what I've seen with the mice, they just run a stick through them, hold it over the flames until it's all blackened and the hair scorched off, then they eat it whole.
Posted by Accipiter  on  Mon Mar 10, 2008  at  05:23 PM
I have read in a digest that their are still countries where they don't believe in the safe sex and use of contraceptive and believed more of their traditional healers. With the scenario, AIDS team should change their approach and try to associate the AIDS prevention techniques with the accepted rules in such place.
Posted by sexual-health  on  Wed Jun 04, 2008  at  01:11 AM
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