Traditional Ways Spread AIDS in Africa

This is very interesting I found this in the
NY Times . When Zamba Manga was born over the summer, doctors informed his mother, Marise, who is H.I.V positive, not to breast-feed, because nursing can overtake the virus that causes AIDS from mother to child. The Mother and baby left the hospital with bottles and formula supplied by a Catholic charity. The very next week, the parents took their baby to the father’s village in the south of Cameroon, to take part in a traditional birth and naming ceremony. Custom required the new mother to nurse the newborn, so she did.

“Why would you risk his health in this way?” Dr. Suzie Tetang Moyo, was deeply frustrated when she saw the parents only just a couple of weeks ago at the clinic. In Africa, there is one medical doctor for every 40,000 people, but one traditional healer for every 500. In the traditional ceremony the government officials recognize the spreading of H.I.V. is because of breast-feeding, this is the standard in many country villages.