Nakibuule Bonita
On Wednesday this week president Museveni in his address of the nation on the Ebola situation advised traditional healers and witch doctors not accept sick people with Ebola symptoms in their shrines.
Now the leader of traditional healers and witch doctors in the country Sylvia Namutebi aka Maama Fina has echoed the presidents words and advised all traditional healers and witch doctors to desist from handling Ebola victims.
“I call upon all traditional healers to chase all sick people from their shrines, those that gather a number of people coming from all parts of the country in one small room should stop it.”
“Government will round you up and by the time you will try explaining your case, you will be in prison where your gods will not be able to save you”
She then talked about the reason as to why many people go to shrines instead of seeking proper medical attention from health facilities.
“People think that If someone starts vomiting then that’s because of witchcraft, if someone starts bleeding suddenly then that’s also associated with witchcraft”
She has now embarked on educating traditional healers that she leads on the dangers of treating Ebola patients.
“We started in Luweero teaching about Ebola, and we intend to move to all parts of the country teaching all traditional healers”
“We also request the ministry of health to give us a hand because there are very many traditional healers that need to be educated all over the country. Come out and motivate us, provide us with strong cars that can traverse the whole country that’s all we need from you.” Concluded Maama Fina while addressing the media yesterday.
It should be noted that when Ebola broke out in Mubende district, the first victims thought it was witch craft and many of them ended up in shrines for treatment which didn’t help them.
