(Feb 05, 2011, ENTOTO, Ethiopia)--Cast out from her family, Tigist arrived at Ethiopia's Entoto Mountain believing that a spring here welled with holy water that would rid her body of HIV.
Joining 4,000 other squatters seeking the same cure, the young woman reluctantly also started taking antiretroviral pills. Gaining strength, she married an HIV-positive man, Melaku, and started a new life in a mud-and-tarp hut amid eucalyptus forests.
The journey of Tigist and Melaku is emblematic of a shift in Ethiopia, where about 1.2 million people live with HIV/AIDS, among the most of any country.
The country's traditional and often superstitious views toward AIDS commonly lead to exile for the disease's sufferers. But modern methods are gaining more purchase, in recent years resulting in a greater number of Ethiopians on antiretroviral therapy and a decline in AIDS-related deaths. Read more from Wall Street Journal Africa »
Joining 4,000 other squatters seeking the same cure, the young woman reluctantly also started taking antiretroviral pills. Gaining strength, she married an HIV-positive man, Melaku, and started a new life in a mud-and-tarp hut amid eucalyptus forests.
The journey of Tigist and Melaku is emblematic of a shift in Ethiopia, where about 1.2 million people live with HIV/AIDS, among the most of any country.
The country's traditional and often superstitious views toward AIDS commonly lead to exile for the disease's sufferers. But modern methods are gaining more purchase, in recent years resulting in a greater number of Ethiopians on antiretroviral therapy and a decline in AIDS-related deaths. Read more from Wall Street Journal Africa »
No comments:
Post a Comment