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http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-1258762,00.html?f=rss
Thousands of Aids and HIV patients are risking their lives by refusing medication in favour of holy water, Sky News can reveal.
The controversial treatment is offered by a church in Ethiopia which claims to have cured hundreds of believers.
Sky News correspondent Ian Woods reports on the practice doctors in the country say is extremely dangerous:
"It was a scene which reminded me of the holocaust.
Naked men, women and children, some of them in chains to prevent them escaping, cower in front of the men in charge in a dimly-lit room in the church of St Mary on Mount Entoto.
These people fear death, but they believe that coming here will prolong their lives. It is more likely to have the opposite effect.
The church is 10,000ft above sea level, where the air is thin. Climbing this peak takes your breath away, and so does the view over the sprawling city of Addis Adaba below.
As we approached the church, we were told both boots and socks had to be removed. This is regarded as sacred ground, and everyone must go barefoot.
The church itself is more than 100 years old, a simple building painted in bright colours. It sits above a mountain stream, and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church believes the stream is holy water with the power to cure HIV/Aids.
Every day, thousands of people with the virus come here to be "baptised", though the act is performed without ceremony and in a way which seems brutal to outsiders.
Plastic jerry cans are filled with water from a pool, and passed along a human chain to priests dressed like deep sea fishermen. The bright yellow waterproofs protect them from the drenching they administer to their congregation.
They hurl the water over the mass of people kneeling in front of them who shriek and scream, either through devotion or the simple shock of the cold water hitting their naked flesh.
Some cried out for the demons to leave their body, while priests hit them with wooden crosses. Many of them clutched their babies while the water was is shaken from the plastic containers. It is an extraordinary sight.
Men and women are separated by a flimsy barrier. The men must be completely naked while the women are allowed to wear panties. They run from the room with their arms across their breasts trying to maintain their modesty.
Afterwards they get dressed and move into another room for two hours of prayers, sermons, ritual and testimonies from those who claim that the holy water has cured them. Some people have been coming here for years in search of a miracle.
The desperate and the devout....Page 2 of story
Thousands of Aids and HIV patients are risking their lives by refusing medication in favour of holy water, Sky News can reveal.
The controversial treatment is offered by a church in Ethiopia which claims to have cured hundreds of believers.
Sky News correspondent Ian Woods reports on the practice doctors in the country say is extremely dangerous:
"It was a scene which reminded me of the holocaust.
Naked men, women and children, some of them in chains to prevent them escaping, cower in front of the men in charge in a dimly-lit room in the church of St Mary on Mount Entoto.
These people fear death, but they believe that coming here will prolong their lives. It is more likely to have the opposite effect.
The church is 10,000ft above sea level, where the air is thin. Climbing this peak takes your breath away, and so does the view over the sprawling city of Addis Adaba below.
As we approached the church, we were told both boots and socks had to be removed. This is regarded as sacred ground, and everyone must go barefoot.
The church itself is more than 100 years old, a simple building painted in bright colours. It sits above a mountain stream, and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church believes the stream is holy water with the power to cure HIV/Aids.
Every day, thousands of people with the virus come here to be "baptised", though the act is performed without ceremony and in a way which seems brutal to outsiders.
Plastic jerry cans are filled with water from a pool, and passed along a human chain to priests dressed like deep sea fishermen. The bright yellow waterproofs protect them from the drenching they administer to their congregation.
They hurl the water over the mass of people kneeling in front of them who shriek and scream, either through devotion or the simple shock of the cold water hitting their naked flesh.
Some cried out for the demons to leave their body, while priests hit them with wooden crosses. Many of them clutched their babies while the water was is shaken from the plastic containers. It is an extraordinary sight.
Men and women are separated by a flimsy barrier. The men must be completely naked while the women are allowed to wear panties. They run from the room with their arms across their breasts trying to maintain their modesty.
Afterwards they get dressed and move into another room for two hours of prayers, sermons, ritual and testimonies from those who claim that the holy water has cured them. Some people have been coming here for years in search of a miracle.
The desperate and the devout....Page 2 of story
