Food and Nutrition a challenge to people living with HIV.

Submitted by sanyu about 4 months ago

HIV/TB requires life long adherence to a combination of antiretroviral drugs. Food can affect HIV treatment in several ways as in, food may affect adherence beliefs that antiretroviral are strong medicines that should be taken with food in order to prevent side effects.

 

Health workers reinforce this belief while counseling on the need to take food along with other commonly used drugs like ant malarial. Unfortunately as a consequence of poor adherence, drug resistance may occur which may lead to HIV development in progress.

 

According to a survey carried out in slums of Kampala (Uganda) a widow by names of Maria Najjuma, who was tested HIV positive at the same time TB positive she is really living in a poor state of not meeting her daily meals. Maria says that she was self employed, a market vendor in Owino market but was forced to leave her work place just because her neighbors in the market were  complaining of her fluent coughing and even customers could not buy from her. 

 

According to medical doctors, patients failing therapy because of poor adherence often require treatment with even more complicated drug combinations which will be difficult to adhere it.

 

Antitroviral drugs may need to be taken with food to ensure that enough of drug is absorbed from the gut to the blood.

 Doctors say that protease inhibitors often require the patient to  take a meal before taking drugs. So there comes a problem to the patients who find it hard to find a meal.

 

However based on the information currently available, health workers should provide drug dosing and adherence information to support patients receiving HIV/TB drugs  basing on food effects to the patients on treatment.

 

It is also important to note that, the information on food and nutrition was obtained from HIV/TB positive people living in slum areas.

 

 

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Keywords: antiretrovirals. food nutrition

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