10/02/2005

Nutrition Key for Success in Anti-Retroviral Therapy

The Mozambican Association of Doctors in the Fight Against AIDS (MCS) warned in Maputo on Thursday that the poor quality of the diet of many HIV-positive people, who are receiving anti-retroviral drugs, is a motive for serious concern.

The MCS warns that poor nutrition risks undermining anti- retroviral treatment.

At a meeting held on the premises of the National Council for the Fight against AIDS, the doctors gave World Bank officials their account of the current stage of the epidemic, and the problems faced in combatting it. They pointed out that the current estimate is that 14.9 per cent of Mozambicans aged between 15 and 49 are HIV-positive. MCS representative Momade Rafico Bagus told reporters that this meeting with the World Bank was intended to discuss jointly mechanisms to ensure nutritional assistance that can complement anti-retroviral therapy.

Rafico said that most patients diagnosed as HIV-positive in the country's health institutions face the same problem - they are unable to provide enough food for themselves, and often they belong to large households.

Rafico said that Maputo General Hospital intends to raise to 125 the number of patients treated with anti-retrovirals, but he doubted that this would do much good as long as patients are weak through malnutrition.

Rafico also claimed that at Mavalane General Hospital HIV- positive patients receive anti-retroviral drugs and recommendations about the lifestyle they should follow - but then do not reappear for control purposes, and usually point to lack of money as the reason.

Rafico's pessimism is not shared by one of the main NGOs assisting the Health Ministry in the anti-AIDS programme, the Rome-based Sant'Egidio Community.

One of the characteristics of the Sant'Egidio programme is that it provides patients with food supplements and with water filters to ensure that they have a decent diet and clean water.

Indeed the nutritional component is clear in the very title of the Sant'Egidio programme, DREAM - an acronym that stands for Drug Resource Enhancement against AIDS and Malnutrition.

As for people interrupting treatment, Sant'Egidio claims this does not happen with patients in the DREAM programme, where adherence to the treatment schedule is better than among HIV- positive patients in Italy or the United States.