HIV patients in Côte d’Ivoire encouraged by faith leaders to stop treatment

Mrs Kouassi was diagnosed with HIV after a medical check up. Her son had passed away some months ago from an unknown disease.

When she revealed her status to her husband, he decided to take her to a pastor. The pastor, after several prayers and meditations, revealed that Mrs Kouassi’s illness was not natural but had a spiritual source. Indeed he believed that she was a witch and that she “ate the soul of their son”. After this revelation, Mrs Kouassi was sent to a prayer camp in order to be delivered from witchcraft.

“I was humiliated and forced to fast. My ARV drugs were taken and thrown away,” she says. She spent some three months in this prayer camp before the members of an NGO - Action Santé Plus - found her, very sick because she was co-infected with HIV and tuberculosis. She was isolated without any care.

Action Santé Plus is an NGO that provides care to HIV patients co-infected with tuberculosis. With a grant from the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition (ITPC) in West Africa, this organization initiated a project that aims to find patients lost to follow-up. Most HIV patients lost to follow-up were found in prayer camps and sometimes in very difficult health conditions.

In some churches, religious leaders encourage HIV patients to stop their treatment and start intensive prayer days in order to be cured. The phenomenon was reported by community counsellors during ITPC’s recent training of community workers on the barriers to treatment access. According to them something needs to be done in order not to push HIV patients into the grave.

Mrs. Koffi Affoué, community counsellor at a local NGO, has no kind words for these faith leaders. She says: ‘’They encourage people to do what they say but not what they do. Some of these pastors are themselves living with HIV and on treatment but they encourage their followers not to do the same. They know how efficient treatment is when used correctly, though they still encourage patients to stop medication. It is very inhuman of them. I remember I used to counsel a young woman and suddenly she told me she would stop her treatment because her pastor told her to do so. She stopped for one month when one day she met her pastor at the hospital with ARV drugs in his hands. The girl was very upset and angry at the pastor.”

When they are diagnosed with HIV, patients are psychologically vulnerable and generally looking for support. And many of them find this support and comfort in faith and religion. In Côte d’Ivoire, faith leaders have been involved in the AIDS response by inviting people not to discriminate against people living with HIV. A network of religious Leaders against AIDS exists in the country and works to prevent HIV stigma and support those affected by the disease.