[pronut-hiv] Zimbabwe: HIV/Aids - Good Nutrition Essential - Part 1

["ProNut-HIV" <pronut-hiv@healthent.org>]

The Herald ( http://www.herald.co.zw/ ) (Harare)
16 February 2008
Harare

A good exercise and a good diet are all part of living healthy, experts
say. The human body needs to be fed and well-exercised in order for it
to function at its best, to protect itself against disease and fight
infection.
The body also needs to be fed well in order for it to develop and
repair cells and tissues in the body, to move and work as well as keep
warm.

If it is subjected to too much strain, whether this be in the form of
unreasonable workload, too much alcohol and smoking, then the body will
definitely succumb.
A colleague who has a weakness for smoking says, each time she has to
go and take a smoke, "let me go and pollute my lungs."
She knows she will actually be polluting her lungs and affecting her
health but lacks the resolve to quit. Many people are like that.
These are the people who subject their bodies to loads and loads of
fatty and over-processed food, whose nutrient content is ZERO -- and
ultimately their bodies protest.
These are the people whose bodies begin to give way and life-style
diseases, which can be quite lethal, begin to crop in.
It is important to note that anyone, even a person whose health is
presently good, if they do not take proper care of their bodies, can
become ill.
However, when it is people living with HIV and Aids, the importance of
eating well and keeping fit cannot be over-emphasised.
HIV is the virus that causes Aids and it attacks the immune system (the
body's defence against disease).
Aids, on the other hand is the name given to a group of serious
illnesses in HIV positive people, when they are no longer able to fight
off the various infections they suffer because of lowered immunity
(Eating healthy, staying positive -- Manual on Nutrition for HIV
Positive People -- SAfAIDS).
The manual further advises that if one is living with HIV, good
nutrition that is well balanced is essential. While food cannot cure or
treat HIV infection, it improves fitness and quality of life. Just
eating well, say some health experts, is sufficient to improve one's
chances of recovering from illness, reducing chances of infection,
preventing weight loss, looking healthier and improved alertness, all of
which can be challenges to a person living with HIV.
But is the choice still ours to make?
For every Zimbabwean hasn't just eating well become a pipe dream? How
many of us have had to go without breakfast just because the budgets we
are operating on do not permit?
How many more have gone without lunch?
No sane person chooses to forgo their meals but in most instances, the
choice is just not theirs to make.
That is why the powers that be need to look at the current shortages of
basic commodities as well as the ridiculously high prices that have
become synonymous with our everyday living as a country.
Are any of them thinking of the long term effects of these challenges
on the health of the nation, on the health of those living with HIV, on
women and children, who constitute the future of this country?
The call is for the ministries of health, public service and social
welfare, women's affairs and community development, among others, whose
mandate it is to protect the health and well-being of the communities we
all come from, to put their heads together and come up with a plan to
save the men, women and children of this country.
A few years ago when ordinary Zimbabweans living with HIV started
walking into public health centres to access anti-retroviral drugs for
the management of their condition, we all gave praise to the powers that
be and those above.
Many of us had lost brothers, sisters, fathers and mothers at a time
when there was no treatment and were gratified to see many others living
with HIV could now live their full lives, because treatment had become
available at home. Aids no longer had to be a death sentence.
Those gains stand to be reversed, however, if people continue to fail
to access even the basic of foodstuffs. We talk here of the ordinary
sadza, green vegetables, kapenta, peanut butter and sugar beans, that on
any given day should constitute a basic and standard food pack.
A quick survey of the supermarkets that the man on the street goes to
when he wants a loaf of bread for his children last week showed me that
it is indeed many of us who will be further foregoing meals in the near
future.