TORONTO, Aug 16, 2006 (AFP) - Despite pouring billions of dollars into life-saving AIDS drugs, the world is failing to ensure poor HIV patients have enough food to survive, the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) warned Wednesday.
The WFP joined the non-governmental organisation Partners in Health at the 16th International AIDS Conference to warn that people getting antiretroviral therapies were far likelier to die if they were undernourished.
They said nutrition programs for HIV patients were critically underfunded, even though a lack of food was often cited by people living with the disease, most of them in the developing world, as their most urgent need.
"We cannot win the battle against AIDS by focusing on drugs alone," Robin Jackson, chief of the WFP's HIV/AIDS service, told reporters.
"Funding antiretrovirals with no thought to food and nutrition is a little like paying a fortune to fix a car but not setting aside money to buy gas," he said.
The WFP and Partners in Health highlighted a study in the specialist journal HIV Medicine, which found that patients who start on antiretrovirals when they are malnourished are six times likelier to die than those who are sufficiently fed.
The study also found that malnutrition reduces the ability of patients to absorb potent triple-pronged antiretroviral therapy, makes it harder to cope with its debilitating side effects, and means patients take longer to recover natural immunity.
The WFP estimates that some kind of HIV care will be needed for 13.8 million people by 2008.
Of that number, 6.4 million will need some kind of nutritional support. Of the 6.6 million that will need antiretroviral treatment, 0.9 million will need food aid, the WFP said.
A nutritional program for those in need between 2006-2008 would cost only 1.1 billion dollars -- just two percent of the 55 billion dollars needed to battle the epidemic in the same period of time. That works out at just 66 US cents, per day, per patient.
"Clearly it's within our power" to get food to the needy, said Stephen Lewis, UN special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa.
"I haven't met a patient who is not asking for food," he said.
The WFP says that HIV patients typically only need emergency rations for six months, before they can get back on their feet and start providing for themselves.
It also said that the threat of running out of food makes it more likely that people will adopt risky lifestyles and increase their chances of becoming infected with HIV.
Balanced diets can also prolong the period of relative health between infection with HIV and the time when symptoms start to be felt, the WHO said.
060816
AF060883
Copyright ©AFP 2006. All Rights Reserved. AFP articles contained on the AEGiS web site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without AFP's prior written permission. You may make one copy of each article for your personal, non-commercial use only; more copies would require AFP's prior written permission. obtained from the owners of any trademarks or copyrighted materials whose marks and materials are included in AFP photos or materials. Therefore you will be solely responsible for obtaining any and all necessary releases from whatever individuals and/or entities necessary for any uses of AFP stories, photos or graphics. http://www.afp.com/
AEGiS is a 501(c)3, not-for-profit, tax-exempt, educational corporation. AEGiS is made possible through unrestricted grants from Boehringer Ingelheim, Elton John AIDS Foundation, the National Library of Medicine, Bridgestone Firestone Trust Fund, and donations from users like you. Always watch for outdated information. This article first appeared in 2006. This material is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.
©1990, 2006 - AEGiS. AEGiS presents published material, reprinted with permission and neither endorses nor opposes any material. All materials appearing on AEGiS are protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under U.S. copyright and other laws and are the property of AEGiS, or the party credited as the provider of the content.
