Congratulations to graduate students Nancy Czaicki and Chris Andersen, UC Berkeley Center for Global Public Health Fellows. Nancy and Chris presented their research this Thursday at the 2014 Global Health Research Fall Student Symposium; Nancy's talk was "Incentives for ART adherence among people living with HIV in Tanzania: mechanisms of action," and Chris presented "Loss to follow-up among Option B+ patients in Shinyanga, Tanzania." Bravo!
Beyond medicine: Delivering on the promise of food security in the context of HIV/AIDS →
Suneetha Kadiyala, a Senior Lecturer at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and Rahul Rawat, a Research Fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), describe the dangerous interaction between food insecurity and HIV/AIDS in this excellent Scientific American article. Suneetha and Rahul highlight their research on food insecurity among people living with HIV infection in Uganda, including an analysis we conducted demonstrating that poor diet quality is associated with low CD4 count and predicts mortality among antiretroviral therapy-naive HIV-positive adults. They also argue for livelihood programs which have the potential to sustainably support care and treatment programs and mitigate the negative household and community-level impacts of HIV/AIDS.
World Food Programme Support for Vulnerable Families in Zimbabwe →
Read a short report about nutritional support provided by the World Food Programme (WFP) to AIDS-affected and other vulnerable families in Zimbabwe. After nutritional assessment, clients at local clinics meeting the criteria for assistance are referred to WFP and their implementing partners and receive Super Cereal, a nutritious fortified blend of maize meal, soya protein and micronutrients. They also get a monthly household ration of maize meal, vegetable oil and pulses. Some types of food assistance programs, similar to this one in Zimbabwe, have been shown to increase adherence to antiretroviral therapy among people living with HIV infection. Read more about WFP's HIV/AIDS-related programs here.