In a major report, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) has called for focusing attention on the fundamental connection between hunger and health, which lies at the heart of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The report was released at WFP's Headquarters in Rome and at UN Headquarters New York on November 28.
Donor countries have invested billions of dollar into antire troviral treatment (ART) and other medication to counter the growing impact of AIDS in developing countries, it said. But they may overlook the irony that people receiving life-saving drugs often lack food and clean water.
The agency points out that as with any drug, anti-retrovirals are more effective when people are adequately nourished, and food support can help ensure 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?"
Studies show that people with HIV have special nutritional needs, the agency says, noting that even when a person consumes enough food, if they lack certain vitamins and minerals, their immune system is compromised, making them vulnerable to infections.
"Food is often cited by people living with and affected by HIV/AIDS as their greatest and most important need," said Elizabeth Mataka, the Secretary-General's Special Envoy for AIDS in Africa.
Speaking at a seminar in Rome, at which the report was presented, she added that "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) predicts that 900,000 people going onto ART in 2008 will require food assistance. It is estimated that the average cost of providing food support to a patient is $0.66 per day less than 2 percent of the current cost of drug programmes.
WFP, one of the first organisations to provide food assistance alongside ART in poor areas, now supports ART programmes in 16 countries in Africa, benefiting over 182,000 people. With active HIV/AIDS interventions in 50 countries worldwide, the agency is providing food assistance in 21 of 25 nations with the highest HIV prevalence rates.