HIV/Aids

HIV/Aids and nutrition
What is meant by "nutrition" and "nutrients"? And why is nutrition so important for people with HIV/Aids?

Food safety
People living with HIV/Aids need to be especially careful about germs and the food that they eat, because their severely weakened immune systems might not be able to cope as effectively as a normal, healthy immune system and opportune diseases can set in.

Aids: Can diet help?
Although dietary interventions cannot cure AIDS, there are three important facets of this illness which are directly influenced by diet.

Nutrition no HIV/Aids cure
In the midst of the HIV/Aids-nutrition debate that is currently raging, thousands of people living with HIV/Aids are trying to make sense of mixed messages. We looked for answers.

Nutritional needs of people with HIV/Aids
As HIV attacks the body's immune system, it has to work harder to fight infection, requiring an increase in energy and nutrients.

Problems that interfere with good nutrition
HIV/Aids may make it difficult to eat and digest food properly. Symptoms such as poor appetite, diarrhoea, nausea and mouth sores are often the result of immune system suppression, opportunistic infections and treatment side-effects.

Aids and supplements
Research studies indicate that increasing the intake of certain vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids can boost the immune system and help the body to fight against AIDS, thus prolonging life. Patients must also keep in mind that most of the anti-AIDS drugs deplete one or more vitamins and/or minerals in the body.

Eating defensively
HIV-infected people are usually more vulnerable to contract food-borne illnesses because of their weakened immune systems. It is therefore important for people with HIV infection to follow basic food safety guidelines and to eat defensively.

Bridging the HIV nutrition gap
Twenty years into a pandemic that has claimed millions of lives, there are still major gaps in terms of HIV/Aids and nutrition knowledge, equity, ideology and programming.