As communities gather to mark World AIDS Day, and governments take stock of the progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is urging that more attention be paid to the fundamental connection between hunger and health, which lies at the heart of the pandemic.
Donor countries have invested billions of dollars into anti-retroviral treatment (ART) and other medication to counter the growing impact of AIDS in developing countries. But they may overlook the irony that people receiving life-saving drugs often lack food and clean water. As with any drug, anti-retrovirals are more effective when people are adequately nourished. Food support can play an important role in ensuring that people who lack food benefit fully from their treatment.
“It is irresponsible to ignore the issue of hunger and malnutrition particularly in the battle against AIDS,” said WFP Deputy Executive Director Sheila Sisulu. “Why should we write off the benefits of medical interventions simply because people are too undernourished to absorb and benefit from the drugs they desperately need?”
The multiple relationships between hunger and poor health are explored – with particular reference to HIV/AIDS – in a major report released today by WFP. The World Hunger Series 2007- Hunger and Health* states that “hidden hunger” affects more than two billion people. Even when a person consumes adequate calories and protein, if they lack one single micronutrient – or a combination of vitamins and minerals – their immune system is compromised, and infections take hold.
Studies show that people with HIV have special nutritional needs. According to WHO, adult energy needs increase by 20-30 percent, while children with HIV require between 50-100 percent more energy because the intestinal track is affected, resulting in poor absorption and loss of appetite. Surveys in Rwanda and Tanzania indicate that lack of food is a major reason for people not to seek treatment for HIV/AIDS – specifically the fear that when they have treatment, their appetite will grow and they lack sufficient food to meet their increased needs.
WFP’s report is being presented in Rome at a seminar ahead of World AIDS Day (1 December). The seminar, held jointly by WFP and the Comunita di Sant’Egidio, a Rome-based non-governmental organisation treating HIV/AIDS patients in Africa, focuses on scaling up proven hunger-health solutions.
Sant’Egidio’s Drug Resource Enhancement against AIDS and Malnutrition (DREAM) programme at 19 centres in six African countries, illustrates how WFP food assistance helps people infected or affected by AIDS. Prevention and treatment are combined to tackle a variety of problems in a single continuum of health care and assistance.
“Since we started in 2002, DREAM has provided assistance to more than 25,000 people with the two-fold aim – to prevent transmission of HIV and guarantee the survival of mothers and their children. Food is a vital component of our treatment,” said Leonardo Palombi, Scientific Director of the DREAM programme.
“Food is often cited by people living with and affected by HIV/AIDS as their greatest and most important need,” said Elizabeth Mataka, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for AIDS in Africa, speaking at the Rome seminar. “Nutrition interventions for HIV programmes are often overlooked in the international HIV policy debate and they remain critically under-funded.”
In a related study, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) has forecast that 900,000 people going onto anti-retroviral drug treatment (ART) in 2008 will require food assistance. It is estimated that the average cost of providing food support to a patient is US$0.66 per day – a figure repres