Guinea-Bissau: Traditional beliefs hinder PMTCT

"Many mothers either become desperate and turn to alternative medicine". (Image: Mercedes Sayagues/PlusNews)

If the ritual, known as tarbessadu, is not carried out, some say the mother will be struck by a disease, and she will pass it on to her male partner.

Dilma (not her real name), 27, knows only too well how strongly people believe in this ritual. She is HIV positive and has tried, unsuccessfully, to get her husband to seek help at the local hospital. He refuses because in his view there is only one cause for his sickness: the fact that the tarbessadu ritual was never performed on his wife.

"He's there [at home], lying in bed. Before he would use an umbrella as a walking stick, but now he can't even walk, he's really bad. When night falls he cries a lot and can barely sleep," she told IRIN/PlusNews.

Read the full article