Multivitamins can halt HIV spread

US doctors have discovered that a simple multivitamin pill can stymie the advance of HIV, a discovery that can greatly benefit patients in developing countries who could thereby get relief from popping expensive pills.

US doctors have discovered that a simple multivitamin pill can stymie the advance of HIV, a discovery that can greatly benefit patients in developing countries who could thereby get relief from popping expensive pills. According to Nature , after a clinical survey involving nearly 1,080 pregnant women with HIV in Tanzania, the doctors found that those who swallowed a daily dose of vitamins B, C and E for up to five years were around 50 per cent less likely to progress to full-blown AIDS. Lead author Wafaie Fawzi of Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, believes that multivitamins should be given to developing-world HIV patients in the early stages of the disease. This would cost around $15 per person, each year and would be a relatively cheaper option to improve their quality of life,he said. These supplements can also postpone the point at which the disease worsens and patients need to be placed on antiretroviral therapy, which is more effective but costs around $300 to $400 annually for each patient. Though these supplements are not a substitute for antiretroviral therapy, yet they are likely to have the biggest impact on HIV in the developing world, where poor nutrition is widespread, he concluded. (Source: Reuters, July 2004)