aydpels

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Stop dry sex…! Women told

By Pelekeleo Liswaniso


A TRADITIONAL healer in Lusaka has called on women to stop taking herbs that promote dry sex because the practice was a recipe for HIV/AIDS.

Dr Rueben Mutombo, Secretary-General of the Zambia National Council of Ng’angas, said a woman’s sexual organs are naturally porous, wet with fluids and soft tissues.
He said when “this hot environment” is subjected to contraction resulting from these herbs, the soft tissues become dry and fluids stop being secreted.

“The outcome of this is internal tear, wear and bleeding” he said. Dr Mutombo operates a traditional clinic in Soweto area of Lusaka.

He was supported by a visiting Kenyan Consultant and Public Health Specialist Dr Francis Mburu who said the internal wounds in a woman’s sexual organs are a good environment for diseases including HIV/AIDS and other Sexually Transmitted Diseases.

Dr Mutombo said there was an overwhelming number of women and men who seek services of traditional healers, a trend he said should be encouraged because traditional medicine was equally effective as an alternative remedy for ailments.

He noted that conventional medicine in hospitals, clinics and pharmacies was expensive and scarce compared to traditional medicine.

Dr Mutombo was speaking at Mulungushi Village during a joint review program of the National Aids Council (NAC) Technical Working Group on Traditional Remedies, Research and Ethics.

He emphasized that traditional medicine was infact the ‘mother of all medicines” but with complicated diseases like HIV/AIDS, STIs and TB, there was need to be careful on some of the cultural practices like dry sex which should be avoided at all costs.
“People should therefore concentrate on traditional remedies that can cure diseases and not engage in habits that endanger their lives”.