Food by Prescription
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E-mail Date of Operation: 2009 – 2013
Primary Implementing Partner: Save the Children
Regions of Operation: Addis Ababa, Amhara, Dire Dawa, Harari, Oromia, SNNP, and Tigray
Goal:
Ensure improved nutrition clinical and functional outcomes among HIV positive individuals, pregnant and postpartum women, and highly vulnerable children in Ethiopia.
Project Objectives:
- Therapeutic and supplementary at health facility (hospital, health center) level
- Procure and distribute ready-to-use therapeutic foods
- Provide nutritional counseling and education
Description:
For pre-antiretroviral treatment and antiretroviral treatment patients, clinical malnutrition is a risk factor for HIV and mortality. Malnutrition can also negatively impact birth outcomes among HIV-positive women. As HIV infection progresses, challenges to maintenance of adequate nutritional status—mal-absorption of nutrients, hyper-metabolism, etc.—increase and can adversely affect adherence to and effectiveness of drug treatments.
Food by Prescription provides food and nutritional support to malnourished HIV+ individuals in the form of therapeutic and supplementary feeding at health facility levels. The project serves severely malnourished people living with HIV/AIDS, HIV+ pregnant women, HIV+ women in their first six months post-partum, their infants, and orphans and vulnerable children. To ensure the program’s success, USAID works with the Ethiopian Ministry of Health and HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Office, as well as the Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance (FANTA) project. Food by Prescription serves as a critical component of PEPFAR, a broader effort to strengthen integration of nutrition into HIV services. In order to reduce the cost associated with importation of nutrients and food commodities, the project will also collaborate with the public and private sector to explore the possibility of local production for some of the required food commodities.
Expected Results:
- Provide nutritional assessment and counseling and Plumpy’nut to malnourished anti-retroviral treatment
- Train at least five health providers and two pharmacists per facility
- Mentors in facilities to assist in initiating the program and assisting in data recording
- Establish strong partnership with university partners
- Conduct Food by Prescription impact study
