AS Zambia prospers in managing and increasing access to antiretroviral treatment (ART), will diets for people living with AIDS improve? Various organizations and researchers have been pondering on this question lately.
Various studies in Zambia have shown that people living with AIDS face increased challenges in maintaining proper nutrition.
Despite developments in medical treatment, nutrition remains a key component in managing this condition.
The challenges those living with AIDS face can be as a result of the viral infection itself or the effects of Anti-AIDS therapy.
“My being HIV-positive made me go through a lot, and it was at this point that I learnt HIV and nutrition are intimately linked,” says Kelly Mulenga of Lusaka’s Kamanga township.
As for Mr Mulenga, living positively has changed his life completely.
“I got sick in mid-2012 and I was rushed to Chelstone Clinic. Whilst there, several medical tests were done and among them was the test for HIV, and the results were positive,” he says.
Mr Mulenga says because of being ill, he lost his job, and life for his family became unbearable as he could not provide for them anymore.
He says from the time he tested positive, one thing he has learnt is that HIV infection can lead to malnutrition.
He said this is because once infected, one’s ability to provide for themselves and their family is affected leading to poor diet, which in turn speeds up the infection progress.
“I saw it myself. I got worse each day because we did not have food at home. My being here is testimony enough,” Mr Mulenga says.
As HIV treatment becomes increasingly available everywhere, critical questions are emerging about how well the drugs work in people if they do not take adequate food.
Mr Mulenga says without food or the right nutrition, taking antiretroviral drugs is such a painful experience, which can be equated to digesting razor blades.
“Given a choice between taking pills with no immediate visible impact, and eating food to survive, food will almost certainly take priority every time.
“Where malnutrition is widespread, taking antiretroviral drugs on an empty stomach is like digesting razor blades. The result is that many simply stop taking them [drugs],” Mr Mulenga said.
AIDS is well known for causing severe weight loss and deterioration. The body changes do not only occur during the AIDS stage but in earlier stages of HIV infection only that they are less visible.
Among young women aged 15-24, HIV prevalence is more than twice that of men in this age category.
The nutritional challenges of HIV-positive people prompted the birth of Food and Nutrition Foundation (FNF), a non-profit organisation working with people living with HIV and AIDS in poor communities in South Africa and Zambia to start up a feeding programme and lessons on how to maintain a balanced diet for people living with AIDS.
FNF runs a feeding programme in Kamanga township.
Foundation executive director Charity Katotobwe Sikazwe says after witnessing the amount of suffering people living with AIDS were going through in accessing nutrition, she decided to form the organisation.
She says her organisation seeks to fight the disease at all levels through the provision of nutritional support and care.
“What I found was that underprivileged women in the compounds and rural areas did not know or understand the importance of appropriate care, for example feeding their HIV-positive relatives properly.
“This lack of understanding and nutritional knowledge resulted in many people dying from HIV and AIDS when there may have been other alternatives,” Mrs Sikazwe said.
Mrs Sikazwe says economic hardships, lack of education, and poverty dramatically affect mortality rates and increase morbidity among people living with AIDS adding that once people fall ill, they are unable to work and they cannot look after themselves and their families.
“This economic disparity is amplified within the HIV and AIDS community and results in inadequate food and nutritional options. Without enough food and proper nutrition, many people begin to react to their medication. This creates a cycle of malnourishment, and a discontinued use of medicine, further depressing immune systems, which results in their death,” Mrs Sikazwe says.
Statistics show that AIDS is most prevalent in the sub-Saharan African region, of which Zambia is part, and most people living with AIDS are undernourished.
Research done by AVERT, an international HIV and AIDS charity based in the United Kingdom (UK), shows that some of the reasons why there is a correlation between malnutrition and the presence of AIDS are the difficulties that some people suffering from AIDS face finding food because the virus increases fatigue, compromising their ability to work in order to provide or prepare food.
The research shows that this impact is greater on those living in poverty in rural areas, where providing food is largely based on farming and other household chores.
The impact of AIDS has gone far beyond the household and community levels. All areas of the public sector and the economy have been weakened, and national development has been silent.
The epidemic is as much likely to affect economic growth as it is affected by it.
The loss of workers due to AIDS can lead to a large reduction in a nation’s economic productivity.
Agriculture, from which the vast majority of Zambians make their living, is particularly affected by the impact of AIDS. A decline in the number of individuals able to work at the crucial periods of planting and harvesting can significantly reduce the size of the harvest.
This further affects food security both at household and national levels, thereby perpetuating malnutrition and worsening the HIV situation. PUBLISHED IN THE ZAMBIA DAILY MAIL ON APRIL 12, 2015
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