Academic Meet on supplementary nutrition for children affected by HIV 22 May 2009

[Guest guest]

India HIV/AIDS Alliance to Organise an Academic Meet on 22 May 2009

Dear members

I am happy to share information with you about an academic meeting that is being

organised by India HIV/AIDS Alliance on 22 May 2009 at New Delhi. The detailed

theme note on the academic meeting is as follows:

 

The HIV epidemic globally is now more than 25 years old. Along these two and a

half decades, it has resulted in significant loss of life and suffering to

populations at large. While the maximum impact of the epidemic is witnessed in

poor and developing regions of the world, it affects every individual

irrespective of age, caste or religion.  Children are among the worst affected

and therefore require a special focus.

Poverty and lack of resources across many regions of the world have placed

children at greater vulnerabilities. Many children are seriously malnourished

and have very little avenues to a healthy life.

Their basic rights as declared in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

(CRC) mentions that the right to life: “include rights to adequate food,

shelter, clean water, formal education, primary health care, leisure and

recreation, cultural activities and information about their rights.

These rights require not only the existence of the means to fulfill the rights

but also access to them.†It has been established that children either

affected or infected by HIV require special consideration with regard to

appropriate nutritional needs for their overall development and health.

It is known that the survival of HIV infected children not only depends on

anti-HIV medication but also appropriate nutritional requirements. It is

believed that a healthy HIV

infected child requires approximately 10% more food intake than a non-infected

child.

A child with clinical symptoms of HIV (opportunistic infections / HIV wasting

etc.) however requires up to 50% more food[1]. And the WHO study says that

disturbances in growth are detectable well before the onset of opportunistic

infections or other manifestations of HIV disease progression[2]. But there is a

relative lack of studies and information about the same in India.

 

As acknowledged in the “National Conference on Nutrition and HIV/AIDS: From

Knowledge to Action A Strategic Framework for Action†by the International

Life Sciences Institute – India; early aggressive nutrition intervention

before a patient goes into a negative nitrogen balance is a must, especially in

children.[3]

While there are many programmes in operation that seek to address the issues of

nutrition for children infected or affected by HIV, what is lacking is the

evidence base, specific strategies and guidelines to provide nutrition to

children infected or affected by HIV/AIDS.

 

Supported by the Global Fund Round -6 grant, India HIV/AIDS Alliance is

implementing CHAHA programme in four states of the country namely, Maharashtra,

Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Manipur.

This programme is being implemented in 42 districts spread over four states with

9 lead partners and 54 implementing partners since June 07. The goal of the

programme is to mitigate the impact of HIV/AIDS on children and families with an

expectation to reach out to 64000 children and their families affected by HIV

with a comprehensive package of care and support services.

Apart from service delivery, Alliance India also strives to contribute to the

knowledge and evidence-based advocacy to deepen the national responses to

children affected by HIV. To discuss and address the issue of supplementary

nutrition to children affected by HIV, an academic meeting is being organised on

Friday, the 22nd May 09 at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi with stakeholders

representing

varied fields and experiences, including practitioners and experts.

 

Therefore the objectives of the meeting are two fold:

 

Enhance the importance of supplementary nutrition for children affected by HIV

for better implementation of CHAHA.

To initiate a process of designing appropriate response to nutritional needs of

CLHIV at national level for policy and programme interventions.

 

With regards,

 

Pankaj Anand

Programme Manager: KM

India HIV/AIDS Alliance

New Delhi

e-mail: panand@...

[1] http://www.baangerda.org/news/2008/04/09/nutrition-research-study-update/

[2] http://www.who.int/nutrition/topics/Executive%20Summary%20WHO.pdf

[3]

http://india.ilsi.org/NR/rdonlyres/BA9F41DF-6CF1-4691-8B2C-FA619286D022/0/HIVAID\

SConfActionPlan.pdf