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ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) - For the past year, Yonas Tadesse has been trying to stave off the effects of HIV with a blend of science and faith — he takes anti-retroviral medicine but also drinks a liter of holy water, blessed by a priest.
The combination has long been a source of controversy in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, where many local leaders believe patients should not take both holy water and medicine. But on Wednesday, Ethiopia's top religious official gave the treatment his blessing in a country where an estimated 1.5 million people are infected with HIV.
"I am asking each and every one of them to swallow the medicine and the holy water together," Patriarch Abune Paulos told a crowd of about 250 worshippers at Addis Ababa's Entoto Mariam church. "They never conflict each other."
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