[pronut-hiv] The requirements and problems with providing freeformula in Africa (2)

["The Centre For Counselling, Nutrition & Health Care" <counsenuth@cats-net.com>]

Just to remind ourselves:
Whether the mother is poor or rich, the goal is to minimize or eliminate the risk of her child dying (from any cause).  I am sure that is why formula feeding is recommended when it is Acceptable, Feasible, Affordable, Sustainable and Safe.  The most important is that formula feeding  is used if the risk of the child dying from the use of formula is less that of dying form HIV.

Mary G. Materu, MSc.
Executive Director
The Centre for Counselling, Nutrition and Health Care (COUNSENUTH)
432 United Nations Road,
P.O. Box 8218, Dar es Salaam
Tanzania.
Tel/Fax: (255) 22 215 2705
Cell Phone: (255) 754 279 145
Alternative e-mail: marymateru@yahoo.com




--- "Rachel Stern" wrote:
The following applies to the US, not to the regions where
breastfeeding is risking mother-to-infant transmission. Nevertheless, the
life expectancy cut short, and the liftetime costs of treating HIV are
things to remember, and in my mind, a good reason to find practical ways to 
successfully use formula feeding when moms are HIV-positive. At least for 
now, until there's a cure or an absolute means of prevention. Right now, HIV 
is a lifetime infection, and these drugs are powerful and imperfect.
----- 
HIV Life Expectancy
Is Extended to 24 Years
Associated Press
November 10, 2006 5:37 p.m.

ATLANTA -- An American diagnosed with the AIDS virus can expect to live for 
about 24 years on average, and the cost of health care over those two-plus 
decades is more than $600,000, new research indicates.

Both life expectancy and the cost of care have risen from earlier estimates, 
mainly because of expensive and effective drug therapies, said Bruce 
Schackman, the study's lead author.

The research found that the average annual cost of care is about $25,200 --
nearly 40% higher than a commonly cited estimate from the late 1990s. The
new research also updates other studies from the 1990s, when life expectancy 
for HIV-infected people was closer to 10 years. The study could influence 
how much state and federal governments appropriate for HIV and AIDS care and 
prevention in the future, some HIV policy experts said.

"They're going to have to take into account medical advances that have
extended people's lives," agreed Dr. Schackman, assistant professor of
public health at New York's Weill Cornell Medical College.

The study appears in the November edition of the peer-reviewed journal,
Medical Care.

A 1993 estimate of life expectancy for a symptomless person infected with
HIV was less than seven years. But since the mid-1990s, about two dozen
HIV-fighting antiretroviral drugs have come onto the market that have
essentially turned HIV from a death sentence into a chronic disease.