HIV and Infectious Disease

In 2001 UNICEF estimated that 800,000 children under the age of 15 contracted HIV, 90% of those through mother-child transmission where the mother has the impossible choice of risking transmission though breastfeeding, or choosing not to breastfeed which increases infant mortality by six times. As well, since the majority of mothers are unaware of their HIV status, often mother-child transmission occurs without the mother’s knowledge.

It is now widely accepted that survival rates among children and those infected with HIV are significantly greater when the victims have sufficient levels of vitamin A, iron, and zinc. While enormous sums of money and personnel are deployed to fight HIV, some of the simplest and least expensive means of improving survival are neglected.

The same is true for other threatening infectious diseases. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, malaria, measles and diarrhea kill almost three million children under five EVERY year. Tuberculosis kills two million people each year, while neglected tropical diseases kill an additional half million. Yet the mortality and morbidity rates from these diseases can be reduced by as much or more than 20% through proper micronutrient nourishment.

Micronutrients are an important key to solving the world's AIDS epidemic as well as the equally devastating infectious diseases like malaria and tuberculosis. Micronutrient deficiencies cause millions of cases of preventable disorders such as blindness, congenital birth defects, mental retardation and anemia. These disorders draw resources away from the complicated problem of infectious disease treatment and prevention. In a resource constrained environment, money and attention unnecessarily diverted toward curative measures for preventable health problems are diverted away from the work of eliminating infectious diseases throughout the world.

To make matters worse, as HIV increases, the problems of micronutrient deficiencies and malnutrition increase. HIV has orphaned over 11 million children who, left to fend for themselves, suffer from greater levels of malnutrition.

In the past there was always an adult around to do the work - to plant the seeds and plough the fields, Now, with one in four adults in the region HIV-positive, many people are too sick to work, or have already died, and it is the children, some as young as eight or nine, who are left to cope alone.
- UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Roger Moore in Zambia