Re: [pronut-hiv] Topic 1: Promising Approaches in Nutrition -HIV Integration

["gladys mugambi" <gladysmugambi@yahoo.com>]

Guidelines have been devoped in Kenya and the following are the experiences and suggestions.
 
1.Many health workers do not read guidelines unless they are trained first, so trainings have to be scaled up in order for them to use them as reference. 

2.Supplies of commodities required for proper implementation are lacking, and there are no standardized protocols on the use of supplements
3.There is now raised awareness on the link between Nutrition and HIV. The Essential Nutrition Actions can be implemented through the HIV/AIDS programs. Issues of Infant feeding and complementary feeding, Vitamin A
supplementation and follow up of sick children in OTP,SFP and food security can be well intergrated to the program.

4. The screening of children in the communities for malnutrition can help to identify families at risk and those that are affected by HIV. This has not been put into the guidelines and it is an opportunity to scale
up community nutrition and HIV programs.

Gladys Mugambi
Clinical Nutrition 
Ministry of Health,
+254 720791041,
gladysmugambi@yahoo.com


--- "Dr. Robert  Mwadime" <rmwadime@rcqhc.org> wrote:

> 
> Now let's discuss our experience and feelings,
> suggestions etc. on integration of (or is it
> "link"?) nutrition and HIV interventions. To help
> facilitate the process of integration, a number of
> countries have developed "guidelines on nutrition
> and HIV/AIDS" (some countries were shy so they
> called it nutrition and "chronic diseases").  
> 
> I propose that we start by giving our experiences on
> the (development and) use of guidelines on nutrition
> and HIV/AIDS. Are they used in the integration
> process? Are there concerns on the guidelines we
> have? What are the promising issues in use of
> national/international guidelines on nutrition and
> HIV?
> 
> Please let us keep to discussions on use of
> guidelines (or policies) and the experiences we
> have. 
> 
> We shall move to other integration issues soon.
>   
> 
> Robert Mwadime (Ph.D, MPH)
> Regional Senior Nutrition and HIV/AIDS Advisor
> Academy for Education Development (AED)
> Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance (FANTA)
> Project
> c/o Regional Centre for Quality of Health Care,
> P. O. Box 29140 Kampala, Uganda
> Tel: +256-772-517438, 752-587635, 414-530888
> www.fantaproject/www.aed.org
> 
> NB/
> 
> We look at integration from two main lenses. 
> One, that nutrition services are provided as part of
> care and treatment interventions for PLHIV.
> Initially this was not heard off and many clinicians
> (including funders of programs) were resistant to
> this. Whenever they heard of nutrition, man, they
> interpreted it to imply "food assistance for the
> food insecure". And when nutritionists sat on the
> same table with HIV/AIDS experts they had little to
> share, other than the 4/6 food groups and cookery
> demonstrations. We have come from far as relates
> this definition. 
> 
> The second lens is that of protection of means of
> livelihood/production (or restoration of resource
> assets) that are the means of food security for the
> household. We have had to improvise new (or old??)
> production techniques (and social networks) and
> sometimes provide food assistance to reach
> households affected (or infected) by HIV in order to
> mitigate against the effects/impact of the disease.
> A lot of resources have been invested in this
> definition but we have a long way to go still.
> 
> 
>