Ethiopia Official Backs AIDS Treatment

By ANITA POWELL, Associated Press Writer, Medicine & Health / HIV & AIDS

U.S. ambassador to Ethiopia Donald Y. Yamamoto, right, and Ethiopian Orthodox Church Patriarch Abune Paulos, left, are seen at Addis Ababa's Entoto Mariam Church, Wednesday, May 23, 2007. Many HIV sufferers in Ethiopia take a seemingly harmless combination of anti-viral medicine along with a liter of holy water, blessed by a priest, a long-time source of controversy in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. On Wednesday Patriarch Paulos, Ethiopia's top religious official, gave the treatment his blessing in a country where an estimated 1.5 million people are infected with HIV. (AP Photo/Anita Powell)

(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.

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