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Multivitamins Delay Onset of AIDS by Stu Hutson
The Harvard FOCUS, July 16, 2004
An eight-year study tracking HIV-infected women in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, has found that a simple regimen of multivitamins can significantly slow the progression of the disease. About 30 percent fewer of the infected women taking daily doses of vitamins B, C, and E reached WHO stage 4 or died of AIDS during the course of the study, compared with the group taking placebos.
The study, which appears in the July 1 New England Journal of Medicine, found that daily doses of the supplements also reduced incidence of oral thrush, oral ulcers, and digestive ailments like diarrhea that can significantly impair an HIV-positive person's quality of life. The researchers, led by HSPH associate professor of nutrition and epidemiology Wafaie Fawzi and the Vincent L. Gregory professor in cancer prevention Dr. David Hunter, noted that the women's CD4+ lymphocyte count stayed up and viral loads stayed down for much longer than with no multivitamin supplements. These effects were more pronounced in the earlier stages of the disease.
Women who were given only vitamin A supplements did not reap any statistically significant benefits beyond those achieved with a placebo. When vitamin A was taken along with the multivitamins, it seemed to reduce the health benefits.
The WHO currently estimates that antiretroviral drug therapy is needed by more than 6 million people with advanced AIDS world-wide, but is only reaching 400,000. The orgainization's "Treat 3 million by 2005" initiative is designed to increase access to treatment by giving antiretroviral care to those with advanced AIDS while providing supportive care to those in earlier stages of the disease. The researchers, from HSPH and the Muhimbili University College of Health Science, say that the multivitamin regimen, costing less than $15 per year, could play an important role in extending the period in which supporting care alone is viable.
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