At least three people have died in London after rejecting life-saving treatment for HIV and instead thinking their healing would come entirely from God. Three women– all of whom suffered from the disease, were encouraged not to take antiretroviral drugs by Evangelical Christian pastors who claimed that God would heal them instead.
The story is one of a long list of many in which a person’s belief system is valued over and above medical advice. Professor Jane Anderson, the director of the Centre for the Study of Sexual Health and HIV in Hackney attests to this: “We see patients quite often who will come having expressed the belief that if they pray frequently enough, their HIV will somehow be cured. We have seen people who choose not to take the tablets at all so sometimes die.”
HIV prevention charity, African Health Policy Network (AHPN) reported that an increasing number of churches have told HIV sufferers that prayer alone is sufficient to heal. The Synagogue Church Of All Nations in Southwark is one church thought to be involved with the practise and even advertises “HIV-Aids healing” on its website as one of the things that the church is able to do.
A Department of Health spokesman is set to respond to the report in Parliament over the next few months.
