National Aids Commission (NAC) and Malawi Interfaith Aids Association (MIAA) officials says that out of the figure, 27 are women while eight are men after they had stopped taking the drugs.

NAC and MIAA are concerned that the growing number of prophets in the country has caused some huge challenges.

“Many people flock to prophets to seek solutions to physical, social and economic problems. We think prophets need to be equipped with proper information to guide such people especially on HIV/Aids,” said Tione Chilambe from NAC.

On her part, Pirira Ndaferankhande, from MIAA complained that “it is not fair to lose 35 people because of false prophesies. They were assured of being healed, stopped taking ARVs and later died.”

They think striking a balance between faith healing and medication is a way to go for prophets, encouraging them to also participate in curbing domestic violence especially rape and defilement.

The officials hope the establishment of Prophetic Ministries Association of Malawi, PROMAM, will assist prophets and other religious leaders to promote HIV prevention, access to treatment and care including ART and HIV testing.

They were speaking during the three-day workshop of imparting HIV knowledge to prophets.

PROMA Vice President, Senior Prophet Dr Justice Hara, hopes the newly established prophetic grouping will bring sanity in the work of prophets in the country.

Currently, PROMAM has a membership of 60 churches.