Can Nurse. 1989 Feb; 85(2): 35-7.

[Facing AIDS in Zambia]

Pelletier PG.

An alternative approach to AIDS in Zambia. Zambians have lived with what we now call AIDS for 20 years. Today, an estimated eight percent of newborns are infected with the virus. Yet dealing with AIDS in this traditional society is an onerous task. While the country's 10,000 nurses are educated in the ways of modern medicine, they are matched by an equal number of traditional healers. And it is traditional values that Zambians turn to when faced by diseases for which modern medicine has few answers--diseases like cancer and AIDS. This author, a nurse educator with The Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa, challenges young nurses to help Zambians respond effectively to this complex situation.