National Nutrition and HIV/AIDS Guidelines for Service Providers of ...

CHAPTER 12
HIV/AIDS, NUTRITION AND FOOD SECURITY
“When you ask people with HIV and AIDS in rural communities in the developing world what
their highest priority is, very often their answer is food. Not care, not drugs for medical
treatment, not relief from stigma, but food”
(Piot and Pinstrup-Andersen, 2002; p11).
This chapter deals with coping strategies which could be used as a guide to meet the nutritional
needs of PLWHAs in food insecure situations. Food insecurity exists whenever the availability of
nutritionally adequate and safe foods or the ability to acquire foods in socially acceptable ways is
limited or uncertain.
To be food secure, all people must be having social, physical and economic access to safe, nutritious,
adequate and culturally acceptable food at all times. Household food security is characterized by four
components, namely availability, accessibility, utilization and sustainability. To achieve these,
households must not only have the ability to produce, purchase or store food but, must also have
adequate knowledge on food groups and their nutritive value, food preparation and balancing of meals.
Nutrition security implies that food security is a necessary but not sufficient precondition for ensuring
satisfactory consumption and nutrition of the individual (Mugabe et al.,1998). At the aggregate level a
household can be food secure while individual members are nutrition and food insecure. Intrahousehold
food distribution should take into account the different nutritional needs of individual
members of the household. In addition, for an individual to be nutrition secure there should be
adequate nutrient intake and efficient utilization by the human body.
12.1 How HIV and AIDS affect food security
HIV and AIDS are a threat to human health and to the social and economic aspects of life. HIV/AIDS has a
devastating effect on nutrition and food security. HIV/AIDS increases the risk of food insecurity through
its impact on productive labour, earnings and savings. Most often, individuals cut back on food intake
by reducing portion size or skipping meals, diverting any earnings and savings to meet health care and
funeral costs. This leads to poverty, increased vulnerability to risky behavior such as sex for food and
money, child labour, crime and drug abuse, etc. Labour of healthy family members is often shifted
from normal food production activities to caring for sick household members. HIV and AIDS thus affect
household food security.
A majority of households with PLWHA are chronically food insecure. They may be unable to follow food
and nutrition recommendations due to their inability to access food required through the market or
own production.
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