Nutritional Supplementation to Improve Outcomes in Children with HIV

Excerpt

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) continues to be a global public health problem. Despite significant reduction in the incidence of new cases of pediatric HIV, children living with HIV (CLHIV) still constitute 10% of the newly infected population. Management with highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) has dramatically improved the survival of HIV-infected children. Providing adequate nutrition forms one of the important but often neglected supportive interventions which can decrease risk of infections, delay the progression to AIDS, and improve overall quality of life [1]. Despite strong evidence associating malnutrition to poor outcomes, evidence supporting routine supplementation of macro- and micronutrients to improve overall outcomes is limited [2]. Nutritional counselling alone is associated with limited benefits [3]. With high prevalence of malnutrition among CLHIV in low- and middle-income countries, and poor food and social security in this population, the idea of routine nutritional supplementation warrants further evaluation. …