HIV+ woman survives on herbs

The Diocese of Mutare Community Care Programme (DOMCCP) has called on research and investment into local herbal treatment amid revelations that a 51-year-old HIV positive woman from Nyanga is surviving only on natural herbs to suppress the viral load in her system for the past 15 years.

Jestina Satambara said she was first diagnosed of HIV in 1996 when she was carrying her third child's pregnancy.

She said then, there were neither drugs for preventing transmission of HIV to her unborn baby nor anti-retroviral drugs. She proceeded to give birth to her child without any medical intervention.

She said her son was tested HIV negative six months later.