Zimbabwe has started a registry for traditional healers who claim to have found a cure for HIV/AIDS, reports Yahoo News, India (in.news.yahoo.com, 1/14).

Traditional healers began gathering on January 11 at the Zimbabwe National Traditional Healers’ Association (ZINATHA) headquarters in the capital city of Harare to register themselves as genuine practitioners, the article notes.

The healers’ work will be monitored by doctors of modern medicine to determine if the traditional remedies improve CD4 counts in the same ways that antiretroviral medicines do.

“Many traditional healers are claiming that they can cure the infection and are taking money from people,” said ZINATHA secretary for information and publicity Tapera Dzviti. “We want to settle the issue once and for all.”

HIV positive people were invited to come forward and participate in the trials.