10 April 2005
It is a great honour for us as South Africa to host this very important meeting on nutrition and HIV and AIDS. We are delighted that the world is beginning to acknowledge the impact of nutrition in preventing and managing diseases including HIV and AIDS.
This three-day consultative meeting, which begins here in Durban today, brings together delegates and representatives of at least six United Nations agencies and 20 African countries particularly from East and Southern Africa.
These are countries that carry the highest burden of the major communicable diseases including HIV and AIDS, TB and Malaria. The underlying factor behind the spread and heavy impact of these diseases in our countries is high level of poverty amongst our populations. Our communities still face daily challenges of food insecurity, poor nutrition and lack of access to basic services such water and sanitation, health and education. The impact of underdevelopment requires that we sustain our efforts to strengthen our health systems so that we can be able to adequately respond to the health needs of our people.
As you know, the health of our children is one of the best indicators of the health status of our population. In 1994, the year in which the current democratic government was established, a study was done on the nutritional status of pre-school children in South Africa. The study indicated that 33% of these children were vitamin A deficient, 21,4% were anaemic and 10% had iron deficiency. In 1999 a National Food Consumption Survey conducted among children aged 1 - 9 years showed that one out of two children had an intake of less than half of the required levels of energy, vitamin A and C and other important micronutrients.
Some of the South African Government interventions against poor nutrition and micronutrient deficiencies include Food fortification programme which requires all millers to add specified amount of vitamins and minerals to all maize meal and wheat flour that is produced in this country. We are also providing vitamin A supplementation for children and are continuing to implement our primary school nutrition programme.
People with HIV who are also food insecure or have nutritional deficiencies are more susceptible to opportunistic infections and are less likely to recover. Good diet that provides the full range of essential micronutrients is important in bolstering the immune system, increasing energy levels and maintaining body weight and overall well-being.
Our position is that good nutrition does not only promote good health but it is also a critical component of a comprehensive response to diseases. Nutrition is not a substitute for appropriate treatment, but it prolongs good health and serves as a solid foundation that often determines the success of other medical interventions.
Nutrition was included as an important element of our Comprehensive HIV and AIDS Care, Management and Treatment Plan adopted by the South African government in November 2003. The objectives of nutritional therapy within this programme are:
As part of the Comprehensive Plan, patients are provided with a supplementary meal and a multivitamin syrup or tablet in public health facilities as part of the nutritional care and support package for people with TB or HIV and AIDS. The number of beneficiaries of this programme was estimated to be 153 000 by the end of February 2005.
We have increased the conditional grant for our Comprehensive Plan on HIV and AIDS by 45% from R782 million in the last financial year to R1,135 billion in the current financial year. This substantial increase in the budget allocation will assist us in vigorously implementing all the elements of the Comprehensive Plan on HIV and AIDS including nutrition interventions.
We are looking forward to sharing our experiences as a country on integrating nutrition into the management of HIV and AIDS at this consultative meeting. We believe that this meeting can assist in providing guidance on some of the critical issues particularly around infant feeding in the context of HIV and AIDS. Addressing the challenges of infant feeding is even more critical at this point when we carry forward the theme for this year's World Health Day which is: make every mother and child count
We hope this meeting will contribute significantly in developing strategies that are both evidence-based and feasible to help improve the health status of people living with HIV and AIDS in East and Southern Africa.
Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang
Minister of Health