Roundup: HIV/AIDS scourge undermines food security in Zimbabwe

The HIV/AIDS epidemic has seriously undermined the food security particularly at household level in Zimbabwe, with growing concerns that the situation will further deteriorate if the problem of HIV/AIDS is not tackled more effectively.

Food security is defined by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) as access by all people at all times to sufficient food required for a healthy and active life.

The HIV/AIDS epidemic has seriously affected food production, with FAO projecting a 23 percent loss of agricultural labor in Zimbabwe between 1985 and 2020.

Rural areas, where most of the food production activities take place, carry the heaviest burden of the epidemic.

Zimbabwe is one of the countries worst affected by HIV/AIDS in the world, with a prevalence rate of 24.6 percent among the sexually active population (from 15 to 49 years).

The adverse effects of the HIV/AIDS pandemic have been felt at individual, household and national levels. The nation at large is feeling the negative effects of HIV/AIDS.

The epidemic is reversing the socio-economic and nutritional gains achieved in the early 1980s and diverting scarce resources away from other pressing developmental issues.

According to the National AIDS Policy (NAP), the HIV/AIDS is the leading cause of illness and death in the age group 15 years and above. It has reduced life expectancy to 42 years. Women and children are especially vulnerable to the effects of HIV/AIDS because of various factors such as cultural norms, socio-economic status, gender and biological set-up.

HIV/AIDS continues to be a major public health and developmental problem in sub-Saharan Africa where 29.4 million people are infected.

This amounts to almost 70 percent of HIV infected people in the world. Zimbabwe is among the top three in the southern African region with high prevalence rates. One in every four adults is infected with HIV.

Sexual intercourse with an infected partner accounts for 92 percent of all transmissions, while parent to child transmission accounts for seven percent and one percent is through other means such as needle prick and blood transfusion.

According to the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, malnutrition are mostly felt by the poor marginalized groups in rural and also increasingly in urban communities.

Amongst these groups are female-headed households, child-headed households and orphans.

Other factors such as drought and poverty also increase the vulnerability of HIV affected communities, households and individuals.

The ministry said "It is therefore important to integrate HIV/ AIDS in interventions aimed at improving food security and nutrition, considering that it has a negative impact on all stages in the food chain from food production through to food consumption. "

One of the objectives of food security is the increase in production and consumption of a variety of nutritious foods for HIV affected households and infected individuals.

Also affected communities, households and individuals, are to be equipped with appropriate skills and knowledge to enable them to re-orient food production activities in the face of HIV/AIDS.

It is also needed to increase access to labor-saving technologies for affected communities and households to facilitate food production.

Some medical personnel staff say having acknowledged the need for the above intervention programs that provide food and food supplements to the worst affected households, the manual is silent on cost-effective nutritional supplements, such as the tried and tested moringa oleifera, also known as the "Miracle Tree."

Moringa is a drought-resistant, fast growing tree with a multitude of uses. Extensive research carried out in west Africa, Asia and Europe, found that the tree has high concentrations of iron, protein, copper, various vitamins and essential amino acids, making it a virtually ideal nutritional supplement.

Source: Xinhua