A good diet is one of the simplest means of helping people live
with HIV/AIDS and may even help delay the progression of the deadly
virus, two UN agencies said today.
A new manual published jointly by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes the relationship between infection and nutrition and offers simple dietary suggestions for the estimated 42 million people living with HIV/AIDS. (It offers practical solutions for people trying to balance their diets in settings around the world)
By bolstering the immune system and boosting energy levels, balanced nutrition can help the body fight back against the ravages of the disease and by maintaining body weight it can support drug treatments and prevent malnutrition.
“The relationship between HIV/AIDS and malnutrition is a particularly extreme example of the vicious cycle of immune dysfunction, infectious disease and malnutrition,” said Dr David Nabarro, WHO Executive Director for Sustainable Development and Healthy Environments.
“The nutritional aspect of HIV/AIDS has been ignored for a long time. The attention was always focused on drugs,” said William Clay of FAO’s Food and Nutrition division, “The message was always: ‘Take two tablets after meals’. But they forgot about the meals.”
Almost 95 percent of people with HIV/AIDS live in developing countries where healthcare, resources and drugs are scarce. For them a balanced diet is a positive way of responding to the illness.
“Food isn’t a magic bullet. It won’t stop people dying of AIDS,” Clay said, “But it can help them live longer, more comfortable and more productive lives.”
Dr Graeme Clugston, Director of WHO’s Department for Nutrition in health and Development, confirmed the need to pay special attention to the role of nutrition on HIV/AIDS and HIV/AIDS on nutrition “The effect of HIV on nutrition begins early in the course of the disease, even before an individual may be aware that he or she is infected with the virus.”
THE AIDS EQUATION
Widespread AIDS often occurs when a whole range of social and economic circumstances – hunger, food insecurity, desperate poverty and social breakdown – collide with the presence of the human immunity suppressing virus (HIV) in the population. Such circumstances may force people, especially young men and women, into high-risk activities like prostitution in order to feed themselves and their families.
When HIV/AIDS strikes a family member the effect ricochets through the lives of the entire household. With the food-producer ill, the family risks becoming malnourished and therefore more susceptible to infection.
AIDS has a devastating effect on a person’s nutritional wellbeing:
Despite blunt appetites and difficulties in eating, people living with HIV/AIDS should eat considerably more food to fight the illness and make up for weight loss. As part of a balanced diet someone affected by HIV/AIDS needs more protein to rebuild muscle tissue, more energy-rich foods for weight gain, immune system-boosting vitamins and minerals and water to combat dehydration.
FOOD TO CARE
The FAO/WHO manual offers households caring for a family member with AIDS inexpensive, locally available remedies for the symptoms linked to the disease. Herbs and spices can stimulate a sluggish appetite or digestion and may have other beneficial effects. Cinnamon can be brewed into a tea to calm chesty coughs, for example, and mint leaves can be used as a gargle.
By encouraging good nutritional habits FAO and WHO hope the manual will improve the diet, health and resistance to infection of the entire family.
Designed to be used by carers, health-workers, community groups and non-governmental organizations, the manual includes:
It focuses on ways of easing the symptoms of HIV/AIDS – lack of appetite, tiredness, soreness of mouth – by suggesting recipes for soups, teas and stews using fruit and vegetables – guava, papaya and baobab for example – that grow in the rural areas of the developing world hardest hit by the AIDS epidemic.
“We hope this guide will be a building block, that it will be adapted by AIDS-affected communities and that it will make people aware of the vital role played by nutrition for someone living with HIV or AIDS,” said Clay.
SPREADING THE WORD
To ensure that the benefits which can be derived from proper nutrition reach people living with HIV/AIDS, FAO and WHO are also developing training courses and educational materials for health workers and care providers. This week, the second field testing of this course is occurring in South Africa and it is envisaged that the course will be published as a complete package with overheads and trainers' and participants' guide in September 2003.
“Nutrition counselling and support is an essential component of care for the HIV-infected person and it is particularly important in resource-constrained settings where malnutrition and food insecurity are endemic,” said Ms Randa Saadeh, the WHO Technical Officer responsible for the training and educational programmes.
Concurrently, WHO is also developing norms and standards for nutritional intake for people living with HIV/AIDS. The relationship between HIV/AIDS and malnutrition presents a classic example of the vicious cycle of immune dysfunction, infectious disease and malnutrition. However, current knowledge is limited. WHO is therefore organizing an expert consultation to review and provide guidance on nutrient and dietary requirements for PLWHA, and to develop a research agenda to determine the impact of improved nutrition on HIV prevention and rate of progression from HIV to AIDS, and the frequency and severity of opportunistic infections; and to develop/promote food technologies which can benefit HIV-affected populations.
“We hope that, with this new information, we can assist governments and organizations in drafting guidelines on nutritional care and support for PLWHA and in developing food/nutrition interventions for HIV-affected populations,” added Saadeh.
The Manual on Nutritional Care and Support for People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) entitled Living Well with HIV/AIDS is available from FAO.
For more information, journalists may contact:
Stephanie Holmes, FAO Media Office, Tel: (+39) 06 57056350; email: stephanie.holmes@fao.org
Or visit the FAO website: FAO website
Mr Gregory Hartl, Communications Adviser for Sustainable Development and Healthy Environments, WHO, Geneva. Telephone (+41 22) 791 4458; Fax (+41 22) 791 4858; Email: hartlg@who.int
For more information on training courses and educational material, please contact:
Ms Randa Saadeh, Nutrition for Health and Development, WHO, Telephone (+41 22) 791 3315; email saadejr@who.int ; or
Mr William D. Clay, Chief, Nutrition Programmes Service, FAO, Telephone (+39) 0657054152; email william.clay@fao.org
United Nations Aids Programme: UNAIDS website