Head pastor of Omega House Chapel of the Assemblies of God Church – Ghana, Prophet Albert Asihene Arjarquah, has urged men of God operating prayer camps not to admit the sick, particularly persons with HIV/AIDS, but allow them to seek medical attention.

According to him, many sicknesses have nothing to do with spirituality, hence patients must be made to understand that while praying for recovery it is imperative to seek treatment and take their medication as prescribed by doctors.

Prophet Arjarquah explained that “it is better we get to know that not all diseases are spiritual; majority might have physical effect so personally I won’t support the idea of keeping the sick in prayer camps. They have to be taken to the right hospital. I know that if that is done, lives would be saved.”

The call by Prophet Arjarquah is coming at the back of research findings by the Ghana AIDS Commission which blamed prayer camps and healing centres for the new HIV infections recorded in the Eastern Region last year.

The national average of HIV prevalence is 1.8. The Eastern Region’s prevalence is 2.6.

At a recent dissemination forum organised by the Regional AIDS Committee under the umbrella of the Technical Support Unit of the Ghana AIDS Commission on the findings, Ms Golda Asante, the Regional AIDS coordinator, said the team visited 85 prayer camps in 18 out of the 26 districts in the region and discovered that some of the prayer camps were accommodating TB patients who shared congested rooms with others because they had been indoctrinated that HIV and AIDS were spiritual diseases and that only prayers and fasting could cure them.