Muslim Clerics Urged to Help Fight AIDS

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — The Health Ministry in the United Arab Emirates has called on Muslim clerics to help combat the spread of AIDS.

"Preachers can do a lot in the drive against AIDS," a ministry official said. "They can provide intellectual immunity against the killer disease."

He said the Islamic Affairs and Endowments Ministry will prepare a program for clerics so they can warn about practices that can cause acquired immunity deficiency syndrome.

Twenty-two people died of AIDS in the Emirates in 1987.