Impossible to fight the HIV virus without good food, warns CARE International

1 December 2006

The need for food might soon overtake the need for anti-retroviral treatment among many HIV positive people in some areas of the world. The fight against HIV cannot be won using drugs alone, so drugs treatments should be run alongside programmes to help people have a secure source of good nutrition.

Geoffrey Dennis, chief executive of CARE International UK said: “It is time policy makers and governments faced the reality that fighting HIV and combating hunger are inextricably linked in the developing world. We need to see more HIV prevention and treatment programmes that incorporate the importance of access to good food.

“Targeting the most vulnerable – which in many areas of the world are the hungry and malnourished – is absolutely key to stopping HIV in its tracks.”

As this year’s UNAIDS figures show, more than two thirds of people infected with HIV are living in sub-Saharan Africa – where the face of poverty is often chronic hunger. It is a serious oversight that this year’s UNAIDS epidemic update does not recognise how crucial having consistent access to good nutrition is to fighting HIV and AIDS in some of the poorest countries in the world.

“Too many HIV positive people live on the brink of emergency and a lack of food can tip them over the edge – as our Living on the Edge campaign shows,” Mr Dennis said.

According to the World Health Organisation:

• People infected with HIV have more difficulty absorbing nutrients and getting energy and gaining weight from food
• HIV positive adults can need up to one third more energy from food than healthy adults in order to maintain a normal body weight and physical activity
• Children who are losing weight can need 50 to 100 per cent more energy than healthy children

CARE’s work with 12 million people living with HIV and AIDS around the world has shown that one of their biggest needs is a secure source of good, nutritious food.

Those who are malnourished, or lack good food, have a weaker immune system and are more susceptible to infection, including HIV. Some anti-retroviral therapies are only effective when taken on a full stomach, and for people living with HIV, good food together with treatment is crucial to prolonging life.

Notes to editors

ABOUT CARE:

CARE is a leading humanitarian organisation fighting global poverty. CARE works to prevent HIV and AIDS and to provide care, treatment and support to vulnerable communities impacted by the disease in 38 countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. We run more than 150 programmes reaching 12 million people around the world to prevent HIV and help people live with the disease.

In Zambia, we work with 85,000 poor families, helping them care for those living with or affected by HIV, to earn money by selling grains, such as sorghum, and getting orphans and vulnerable children into school. We meet the most basic needs of the very worst off by giving cash transfers which people can spend on food and health care.

For a fact sheet about HIV and food, contact Sophie Kummer, kummer@careinternational.org 020 7934 9347