World AIDS day: lack of food creating "time bomb"

CAFOD has warned that the progress in delivering anti-retroviral (ARV)drugs to people living with HIV in Africa is being threatened by rising food prices across the continent.

There has been a rapid expansion of the availability of ARV drugs in poorer countries, extending the length and improving the quality of life for many people living with HIV. But as the cost of food continues to rise, people are increasingly struggling to afford the balanced diet essential for the success of the treatment.

"If you take ARVs without sufficient food, they cause serious nausea, loss of appetite, increase diarrhea and vomiting, and bring severe abdominal cramps," says Caroline Njeri Muthiga, CAFOD’s nutrition expert in Kenya.

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Jane Lennon, from CAFOD’s HIV and AIDS team explains, "eight million people across the developing world are now accessing life-saving HIV treatment, compared to just 400,000 in 2003. Although this is progress, it is still only just over half the people who could benefit from this medication.

"But if you don’t have enough to eat, then ARVs can’t work in the way they were intended to. In fact, they cause serious side effects."

In countries like Zambia, which has the third worst rates of hunger in the world according to the latest UN figures , our partners are calling the situation a "time bomb". Many people taking ARVs are coming off the treatment as they lack the money for food whilst others are refusing to start urgently needed treatment for the same reason.

A spokesman for the Catholic Diocese of Ndola says: "Once they are on ARVs, people begin to respond and their appetite is regained. But if they have no food they do not take them."

The most successful treatment programmes are the ones that give people food alongside their ARVs, as well as helping people to earn a living.

"The rise in food prices is seriously threatening the progress the world has made on combating HIV,"  said Georgia Burford, CAFOD’s HIV Strategy Manager. "Those of us working with people living with HIV must make sure that they are receiving an adequate diet, if necessary by providing nutritional support.

"If people stop taking ARVs there is a higher risk that they will develop resistance to the drugs. Subsequently this leads to a risk that a drug resistant strain of the virus could be passed on, the spread of which could result in the failure of global efforts to defeat HIV.

“The rise in food costs will lead to many people abandoning treatment. It is not enough just to provide pills. The progress we have made to date will be meaningless if escalating food prices are not addressed."

We can't stop now

The global theme for this year’s World AIDS Day on 1 December is ‘Getting to Zero’. If those living with and affected by HIV and AIDS had sufficient, nutritious food, imagine the difference this would make to the vision of “Zero new HIV infections. Zero AIDS-related deaths. Zero discrimination”.

By supporting our Hungry for change campaign, you can call for a fairer food system, so that people living with HIV and AIDS and their families can live healthier and better lives.

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