Busoga Integrated Development and Care Foundation
Promoting sustainable healthcare & facilitating development
Nutritional care and support Project.
Although there has been a decline in HIV/AIDS, the trends in malnutrition have not changed. For optimum nutrition, one needs adequate food security. However, in Uganda, food insecurity results from poverty, intra-regional differences, internal displacement, gender imbalances in food allocation and intra-household food distribution, and lack of knowledge. During the harvest period most households in Uganda has a variety of food items in adequate quantities, and on average consume three meals per day. However, as the dry season progresses, the meals consumed become less varied and families eat two meals or even one meal a day at the onset of the planting season.
This aggravates the problem of recurring malnutrition. HIV/AIDS attacks households by reducing labor, agricultural production and income, which then leads to food insecurity. This limits the capacity of affected household to access food or quality care and adopt appropriate health and nutritional responses to HIV/AIDS.
According to the UDHS (2001), 39% of children less than five years of age are stunted and 9% of women of reproductive age have chronic energy deficiency. Over 65% of children less than five years of age and 30% of women 15-49 years of age are anemic, while 28% of children and 52% of women are vitamin A deficient. Given these high levels of under-nutrition in Uganda, it is likely that deficiencies of other nutrients such as zinc, selenium, magnesium and vitamin C that are important for the immune function are prevalent in Uganda. Like HIV/AIDS, malnutrition also compromises the immune function and thus increases susceptibility to severe illnesses and reduces survival.
Providing quality care and support for people with HIV/AIDS (PHA) requires addressing their nutritional needs. Provision of good nutrition has been shown to be an effective strategy in the mitigation of the effects of HIV/AIDS. Nutritional care and support should therefore be an integral component of the HIV/AIDS comprehensive care package.
Many people living with HIV (PLHIV) in Africa report that food is their most urgent need. Even among populations in the region not affected by HIV, food insecurity and malnutrition are common. HIV worsens the situation through a vicious cycle in which HIV causes or exacerbates malnutrition and food insecurity, and malnutrition and food insecurity limit capacity to cope with the disease and its impacts.
Nutrition interventions can help break this cycle by strengthening immune response, promoting response to treatment, supporting management of symptoms, and improving functioning and quality of life. Nutrition interventions are therefore a critical component of comprehensive HIV care and treatment.
Evidence has shown important links between improved HIV and AIDS outcomes and nutrition. Adequate nutrition is necessary to maintain the immune system, manage opportunistic infections, optimize response to medical treatment, sustain healthy levels of physical activity, and support optimal quality of life for a person living with HIV (PLHIV). Good nutrition may contribute to slowing the progression of the disease. Nutrition interventions can also help to optimize the benefits of antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) and may increase compliance with treatment regimens, both of which are essential to prolonging the lives of PLHIVs and to preventing the transmission of HIV from mother to child.
For HIV-positive women, optimal nutrition during pregnancy increases weight gain and improves maternal nutrition which, in turn, improves birth outcomes. For HIV-exposed infants, adequate nutrition counseling and support can lower the risk of HIV transmission from mother to child and increase HIV-free survival of infants. For HIV-positive children, safe feeding practices and improved dietary intake are critical to regain weight lost during opportunistic infections. Periodic vitamin A supplementation in HIV-positive children reduces illness and death and improves growth.
Our key Interventions:
- Basic assistance (income support).
- Nutritional Requirements and care for HIV-Positive Children Nutritional Assessment.
- Nutritional Assessment, Growth Monitoring, and Counseling for the HIV-Positive Child.
- Dietary Recommendations and Care Practices.
- Dietary Management of AIDS-Related Symptoms, Medications, and Food-Drug Interactions in Children.
- Management of Wasting or Severe Malnutrition.
- Short term Provision of Food Supplements for HIV-Positive Pregnant and Lactating Women & PLHIVs.
- Treatment for Severely Malnourished HIV-Positive Children.
- Training:
- In nutrition, Food, and Health Education and Counseling.
- In healthy Lifestyle Education and Counseling.
- Infant Feeding Counseling.
- Health Education and Treatment for HIV-Positive Pregnant and Lactating Women.
- Counseling about savings, health, psychosocial in Social-Economic Status for caregivers.
- Apprenticeship and internship programs for out-of-school vulnerable youth.
- Training in micro enterprise and/or small business management for caregivers.
- Community involvement.
- Awareness campaigns regarding improving HIV and AIDS outcomes through nutrition support.
- Counseling HIV-Positive Women to Make and Carry Out Infant Feeding Decisions.
- Counseling Issues during Pregnancy and Lactation.
- Community volunteer programs.
- A Food-Based Approach To Support HIV/AIDS Affected Households and Communities.
Office Address:
P.O.Box 90,
Iganga
Uganda
+256
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