Bangkok - Well-balanced meals are a key ingredient to survival for the millions of HIV/AIDS patients in South and South-East Asia, World Health Organization (WHO) experts said Tuesday. "Nutrition and HIV are closely related," said Samlee Plianbangchang, WHO's regional director for South-East Asia.

"HIV affects nutritional status, and poor nutrition in turn leads to faster progression of HIV to AIDS," Samlee told a seminar of health workers and experts who gathered in Bangkok this week to find solutions to fighting the two epidemics of malnutrition and HIV/AIDS. "Scaling-up care and antiretroviral therapy cannot be addressed without appropriate support for nutrition."

There are an estimated 4 million people suffering from HIV/AIDS in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Myanmar, Thailand, South Korea and Sri Lanka, the area defined by the UN agency as South-East Asia.

The good news is that most Asian diets are well-suited to providing the nutrition HIV/AIDS patients require.

"I think Thai food is well-balanced and has all the nutrients somebody needs, but it depends on keeping the right balance of carbohydrates, proteins and fats," said Ranga Saadeh, a scientist working for WHO's nutrition department in Geneva. Evidence has established that people living with HIV have higher energy needs than those who are HIV-negative.

Asymptomatic HIV-positive adults or children need 10 per cent more energy than those who are not HIV-positive, and those at advanced stages need 20 to 30 per cent more energy to maintain body weight, Saadeh said.

HIV-positive children who are losing weight need 50 to 100 per cent more energy, she said.

Providing a balanced, nutritious diet in countries where malnutrition is endemic poses an added challenge to their health services.

"This HIV/AIDs epidemic is being superimposed on the already existing malnutrition problems," Saddeh said, "so if we want to make a difference, we should really deal with both challenges at the same time."

Source: AIDS ASIA, 10 October 2007