Treating HIV on an empty stomach in Nairobi

Dealing with HIV infection is hard enough, but the rise in food prices throughout the Horn of Africa has produced a new problem - treating HIV on an empty stomach, writes Chris Herlinger.

"When you take the (anti-viral) medicine and you don't eat, you shake," said Joan Ochieng, aged 41, a single mother who like others in the Kiamaiko section of Nairobi is faced with feeding herself and her family on less food while sticking to a drug regimen to combat the virus that can lead to AIDS.

A severe increase in food prices is taking a serious toll throughout Kenya and neighbouring countries but is being keenly felt in particular in poor neighbourhoods with high rates of HIV infection and tuberculosis.

The price of rice, for example, has more than doubled in six months, from 50 Kenyan schillings per kilo to 120 Kenyan schillings (an increase of about US 50 cents to US $1.35).

With families having to skip or spread out meals over a day's or week's time, the results are often painful for those taking the anti-viral medicines, which are government-subsidized and for optimum effect need to be taken on a full stomach. If she hasn't eaten, Ochieng, a street vendor, said she feels sick or nauseous after taking her medicines.

This is common, said Rose Omia, a Nairobi health worker, who added that some people being treated for HIV are forgoing their anti-viral medicines because of the side effects, like gastric pain, that come with not having enough food when they take the drugs.

Ochieng said that meat is a rarity these days; dinner is more likely to be a small bowl of porridge. The situation has led to a great deal of pessimism, Ochieng said, with many feeling that the situation is "out of our control. We leave it to God."

The Rev Paulino Mondo, a parish priest at Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church in Nairobi's Kariobangi section, whose church's social outreach work is in part funded by the US-based humanitarian agency Catholic Relief Services, said the rise in food prices could lead to frustration and violence, given the extremes people find themselves experiencing.

"You have to give people an alternative - life without such violence," Mondo said in a recent interview. "But the food crisis is turning everything upside down."

[With acknowledgements to ENInews. ENInews, formerly Ecumenical News International, is jointly sponsored by the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Communion of Reformed Churches, and the Conference of European Churches.]

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Bishops in Kenya take new stance on genetically modified foods

By ENInews

4 Aug 2011

Roman Catholic bishops in Kenya told people to eat genetically modified foods to check starvation amidst a serious drought in the Horn of Africa - writes Fredrick Nzwili.

The bishops spoke in response to opposition from some non-governmental organisations and legislators to a government plan to import genetically modified maize from South Africa.

"We are in favour of non-genetically-modified foods, but if there is a crisis and they can resurrect the person for one week, eat them," said Archbishop Zacchaeus Okoth of Kisumu, who chairs the Justice and Peace Commission of the Kenya Episcopal Conference.

Okoth said the drought and food insecurity threatened the lives of many Kenyans. This had been worsened by the rising price of basic foods, the deteriorating condition of livestock, and high rates ofinflation, he said.

Groups opposed to importing foods made with genetically modified organisms (GMOs) argue they may harm people's health. But Professor Shaukat Shabairo, head of the National Council of Science and Technology, said the foods could help improve the situation.

"If you are being faced with a calamity and there are no options to explore, GMOs would be a viable source," said Shabairo.

The UN says nearly 2.9 million Kenyans need food aid due to the drought caused by failed rains.

"It is sin for somebody to die in Kenya of hunger. It is total neglect on the part of the government," said Bishop Cornelius Korir.

[With acknowledgements to ENInews. ENInews, formerly Ecumenical News International, is jointly sponsored by the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Communion of Reformed Churches and the Conference of European Churches.]

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