Lack Of AIDS Cure Is Punishment From God - MD

A medical doctor on Monday gave a religious angle to the HIV-AIDS pandemic when he quoted portions of the Bible to infer that the lack of a cure for the disease was a punishment from God.

Dr Samuel Nunoo, Medical Officer in charge of Jehovah Rapha Clinic and Maternity at Adenta in Accra, told the Ghana News Agency that symptoms of the disease were similar to curses listed in the Bible as mankind's punishment for disobeying the commandments of God.

He referred to Deuteronomy chapter 28 which says: "The Lord will strike you with consumption with fever, with inflammation, with severe burning fever until you perish....the boils of Egypt with tumours, with the scab and with itch from which you cannot be healed."

He said these infirmities explained the signs and symptoms of AIDS such as swellings in the armpit, fever, headaches, shingles and feeling of tiredness among others. Dr Nunoo said the Bible had prescribed sexual abstinence as among the methods of preventing the disease and limited sex to only married couples.

He called for serious efforts to combat the disease that had so far recorded over 600,000 cases in Ghana with about 200 people being infected daily. " I have single-handedly visited over 52 communities, religious groups and schools with the AIDS awareness message since 1999 in the Greater Accra, Ashanti and Central Regions and I hope there will be more health volunteers to check the spread."