ARVs and food security in Zambia
By, William Chilufya, HDN Key Correspondent in Zambia, June 26, 2007
For people living with HIV (PLHIV), good nutrition is essential for continued good health. Yet, for too many PLHIV in Zambia, especially in rural areas, getting enough to eat adds enormously to life’s daily challenges.
“I have no money to buy food and am on ARVs [antiretroviral drugs],” said Lillian, a mother with one child. Lillian’s husband died from AIDS-related complications three years ago.
“My son and I sometimes spend the whole day without eating anything – I feel dizzy and weak if I do not eat when I take the drugs, and then I can’t do anything.”
Despite these difficulties, Lillian has persevered with her medication; keeping in mind that if she does not she risks developing resistance to ARVs.
Chibesa, a subsistence farmer in his thirties, exemplifies the daily struggle of an HIV positive person compelled to take ARV treatment without adequate means required for the drug uptake.
Whenever he takes the drug without getting something to eat, he feels dizzy and his heart rate accelerates.
“For several hours, I cannot move but if I get something like porridge or bread it is different,” said Chibesa.
According to Emmanuel Tembo, an HIV consultant, “Taking ARVs where there is no food only worsens the sickness, because some of these drugs are toxic and, they can cause problems unless they are taken with the recommended types of food.”
Most ARVs interfere with the virus’s ability to replicate inside your body. Others block the virus from getting inside your cells. ARVs do not cure HIV, they only suppress the virus. By taking your medications as prescribed, you reduce the amount of virus in your body.
The food you eat and how you eat it is very important in keeping your immune system strong and building it up when it is low; when you are on ARVs or, indeed, other drugs, a balanced diet is recommended.
Getting a balanced diet means eating lots of different types of foods. This helps to make sure you receive all the different nutrients that your body needs. But in the absence of proper nutrition taking the drugs becomes just as bad as not taking them.
“There is a shortage of food in some parts of Zambia, especially in rural areas, where people are going for nights without meals; worse still are those who are HIV positive and on ARVs,” Tembo said.
The number of people living with HIV and going hungry has not yet been established. However, according to the 2002-2003 Living Conditions Monitoring Survey (LCMS) from the Central Statistical Office (CSO), approximately 67% of Zambian households are ‘poor’ and 46% ‘extremely poor’ (unable to afford even basic food items).
The government of the Republic of Zambia is providing free ARVs as part of its commitment to the global target of promoting universal access to treatment by 2010. Also, the government has scrapped user fees in rural health centres.
Food assistance is the number one request made by PLHIV. It is key to improving overall health and quality of life.
Good nutrition helps PLHIV manage symptoms and effectively respond to treatment. Conversely, HIV compromises the nutritional status of infected individuals. It creates additional nutritional requirements, causing symptoms that limit food intake and reducing the use of nutrients by the body. Moreover, when a hungry person living with HIV has enough food for himself and his family, he is much more likely to adhere to treatment. Food-insecure PLHIV know all too well the cruel irony of an increased appetite caused by the ARVs.
These links are particularly acute in rural communities, where households are often dependent on agriculture for both income and food. In many villages across Zambia, HIV has wreaked havoc on food production. When someone is debilitated by disease, the food security of his or her family is in jeopardy. All too often families are forced to sell livestock and other valuable assets to care for the sick or to pay funeral expenses. This then compromises any future earning potential.
For that reason, improving rural livelihoods and agricultural production can help reduce both the spread of HIV and its impact. Programmes that reduce the need for poor people to migrate to look for work (e.g., by restoring degraded land) can reduce their risk of being exposed to the virus.
With the majority of Zambian households located in rural areas, and the majority of poor households engaging in subsistence farming in these areas, what is most needed in Zambia is an agricultural revolution – in other words an explosion in agricultural output brought about by improved seed varieties, better farming and animal husbandry methods.
In Zambia agricultural development is crucial to national development: higher food production leads to higher rural incomes and lower urban food prices, both bringing about higher levels of food security; higher food production also increases resources for diversifying into other income generating activities at household level and increases overall opportunities for agro-business (e.g., producing peanut butter, cooking oil, etc.) at the national level.
Frequent droughts, cattle diseases, HIV related illnesses and deaths, etc. have decimated agricultural productivity in the country. The government has a huge responsibility to rejuvenate agricultural productivity.
Last season’s heavy rains damaged crops and infrastructure in some parts of the country and worsened the already fragile situation of food insecurity.
According to Paul Kasokomona, an HIV activist and member of Treatment Advocacy and Literacy Campaign (TALC), the food crisis in rural areas will seriously compromise life prolonging ARV treatment.
“Many persons taking ARVs tell us they are considering stopping it as without food there is no use taking the drugs,” Paul said.
HDN 2007
Source: www.correspondent.org
For people living with HIV (PLHIV), good nutrition is essential for continued good health. Yet, for too many PLHIV in Zambia, especially in rural areas, getting enough to eat adds enormously to life’s daily challenges.
“I have no money to buy food and am on ARVs [antiretroviral drugs],” said Lillian, a mother with one child. Lillian’s husband died from AIDS-related complications three years ago.
“My son and I sometimes spend the whole day without eating anything – I feel dizzy and weak if I do not eat when I take the drugs, and then I can’t do anything.”
Despite these difficulties, Lillian has persevered with her medication; keeping in mind that if she does not she risks developing resistance to ARVs.
Chibesa, a subsistence farmer in his thirties, exemplifies the daily struggle of an HIV positive person compelled to take ARV treatment without adequate means required for the drug uptake.
Whenever he takes the drug without getting something to eat, he feels dizzy and his heart rate accelerates.
“For several hours, I cannot move but if I get something like porridge or bread it is different,” said Chibesa.
According to Emmanuel Tembo, an HIV consultant, “Taking ARVs where there is no food only worsens the sickness, because some of these drugs are toxic and, they can cause problems unless they are taken with the recommended types of food.”
Most ARVs interfere with the virus’s ability to replicate inside your body. Others block the virus from getting inside your cells. ARVs do not cure HIV, they only suppress the virus. By taking your medications as prescribed, you reduce the amount of virus in your body.
The food you eat and how you eat it is very important in keeping your immune system strong and building it up when it is low; when you are on ARVs or, indeed, other drugs, a balanced diet is recommended.
Getting a balanced diet means eating lots of different types of foods. This helps to make sure you receive all the different nutrients that your body needs. But in the absence of proper nutrition taking the drugs becomes just as bad as not taking them.
“There is a shortage of food in some parts of Zambia, especially in rural areas, where people are going for nights without meals; worse still are those who are HIV positive and on ARVs,” Tembo said.
The number of people living with HIV and going hungry has not yet been established. However, according to the 2002-2003 Living Conditions Monitoring Survey (LCMS) from the Central Statistical Office (CSO), approximately 67% of Zambian households are ‘poor’ and 46% ‘extremely poor’ (unable to afford even basic food items).
The government of the Republic of Zambia is providing free ARVs as part of its commitment to the global target of promoting universal access to treatment by 2010. Also, the government has scrapped user fees in rural health centres.
Food assistance is the number one request made by PLHIV. It is key to improving overall health and quality of life.
Good nutrition helps PLHIV manage symptoms and effectively respond to treatment. Conversely, HIV compromises the nutritional status of infected individuals. It creates additional nutritional requirements, causing symptoms that limit food intake and reducing the use of nutrients by the body. Moreover, when a hungry person living with HIV has enough food for himself and his family, he is much more likely to adhere to treatment. Food-insecure PLHIV know all too well the cruel irony of an increased appetite caused by the ARVs.
These links are particularly acute in rural communities, where households are often dependent on agriculture for both income and food. In many villages across Zambia, HIV has wreaked havoc on food production. When someone is debilitated by disease, the food security of his or her family is in jeopardy. All too often families are forced to sell livestock and other valuable assets to care for the sick or to pay funeral expenses. This then compromises any future earning potential.
For that reason, improving rural livelihoods and agricultural production can help reduce both the spread of HIV and its impact. Programmes that reduce the need for poor people to migrate to look for work (e.g., by restoring degraded land) can reduce their risk of being exposed to the virus.
With the majority of Zambian households located in rural areas, and the majority of poor households engaging in subsistence farming in these areas, what is most needed in Zambia is an agricultural revolution – in other words an explosion in agricultural output brought about by improved seed varieties, better farming and animal husbandry methods.
In Zambia agricultural development is crucial to national development: higher food production leads to higher rural incomes and lower urban food prices, both bringing about higher levels of food security; higher food production also increases resources for diversifying into other income generating activities at household level and increases overall opportunities for agro-business (e.g., producing peanut butter, cooking oil, etc.) at the national level.
Frequent droughts, cattle diseases, HIV related illnesses and deaths, etc. have decimated agricultural productivity in the country. The government has a huge responsibility to rejuvenate agricultural productivity.
Last season’s heavy rains damaged crops and infrastructure in some parts of the country and worsened the already fragile situation of food insecurity.
According to Paul Kasokomona, an HIV activist and member of Treatment Advocacy and Literacy Campaign (TALC), the food crisis in rural areas will seriously compromise life prolonging ARV treatment.
“Many persons taking ARVs tell us they are considering stopping it as without food there is no use taking the drugs,” Paul said.
HDN 2007
Source: www.correspondent.org
posted by AIDS-Care-Watch at 3:37 pm
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