ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Over a quarter of Ethiopia's HIV/AIDS patients on drugs are not taking their medicine because of logistical problems but also due to religious beliefs, the head of a treatment body said on Tuesday.
Over 40,000 of Ethiopia's 156,360 HIV/AIDS patients on thelife-prolonging medication have discontinued treatment "due toproblems of transportation to hospitals," said Dr YgeremuAbebe, the director of the Clinton Foundation in Ethiopia.
Some however stopped taking the anti-retroviral medicine onthe prompting of religious leaders who encouraged them to take"holy water" instead, he said.
"Lack of awareness of serious health problem for patientswho discontinue treatment could also be considered a reason,"Ygeremu told a workshop on the disease.
Some 20 percent of 7,000 children with the illness havealso stopped medication, he said.
Last year, the head of Ethiopia's Orthodox Church toldabout 5,000 faithful, most of who were infected, that theyshould combine the free drugs -- provided under U.S. PresidentGeorge W. Bush's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief -- with theholy water.
With more than 1.7 million people living with HIV/AIDS,Ethiopia is one of the countries in the world most affected bythe epidemic, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Over a million adults and children have died in Ethiopia inthe last two decades from AIDS.
Infections in the country are predominantly in urban areasbut have in the last several years spread to rural centres allover the country, where 85 percent of Ethiopia's 81 millionpeople live, according to WHO.
(Reporting by Tsegaye Tadesse; Editing by RichardBalmforth)
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