Starvation and malnutrition are “fast becoming the twin perils” in the fight against HIV/AIDS, and the need for food soon might surpass the need for antiretroviral drugs among many HIV-positive people in the developing world, the AP/ABC2 News reports.
According to the U.N. World Food Programme, an estimated 3.8 million people living with HIV/AIDS worldwide needed food support this year, and 6.4 million might need support by 2008.
In addition, a study published in the journal HIV Medicine found that malnourished HIV-positive people are six times more likely to die when using antiretroviral drugs compared with HIV-positive people with adequate nutrition (Jacobs, AP/ABC2 News, 11/9).
According to experts, poverty and hunger also cause people to engage in high-risk sexual behavior to earn money for food. In addition, malnourished people are more likely to contract HIV during unprotected sex, Stuart Gillespie, senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute, said (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 8/4).
World hunger and the AIDS/HIV pandemic share the same causes as well – world negligence, social inequality, lack of education. Unfortunately, these two terrible epidemics thus often plague the same peoples and areas.
Although we can feed a hungry child to alleviate his hunger, we possess no cure for AIDS/HIV.
The pharmaceutical corporations make more money without a cure, because infected people have to regularly buy antiretroviral drugs. Thus, they will probably neither invent nor release a cure anytime soon.
We need to prevent hunger and AIDS/HIV, which we can do through such methods as education, micro-finance loans, and by freely opening up borders and trade-markets.
What do you think?
There are many people who state that HIV does not cause AIDS, that the AIDS test is meaningless as 60 different diseases can acuse a positive antibody result, and there are natural cures for AIDS, which is one of over 30 diseases. The same cure for AIDS is also a cure for cancer. For more information e-mail me at Jomilo@lycos.com, SUBJECT: HIV does not cause AIDS. Also AZT kills but does not cure, 100 percent of people reciving AZT die within 12 years.
If you were an African and suffered from the consequences of Aids the way one million Malawians have. Including an extra million of children without parents you would have the luxury that you have to question the link between HIV and Aids. If you had seen how our families poor as they are still getting devatsated by this pandemic I dont think you would have said anything like there are natural cures for Aids when 35 million people are living in dispair saying ‘if i only had a second chance. ARV does not cure Aids yes, but it gives hope to the sick and the family, you prepare you affairs well including the fiuture of your children. Yes nutrition has all the good reasons to help the Aids programmes, but when you close your eyes on a full stomach and think the world still has a luxury of experimenting on poor african souls, today Aids while people are debating the semantics of the virus that causes Aids, the virus is spreading in Eatsern Europe, Americas and even Asia. one day the disease burden will be shared equally and people like the one with the comment about cure of Aids will learn one fact. Aids is real and caused by HIV and devastating families. Please just eb sane and dont use africa for your selfish experiments.
Actually for most of the developing world nutrition has not been given priority yet malnutrition pervades, and as one writer notes quite rightly HIV/AIDS is linked to malnutrition, because malnutrition worsens HIV infection as studies have shown it accelarates conversion from HIV to AIDS and at the same time good nutrition interventions promote immune status build up.