Food aid pivotal in HIV/AIDS response - Aid agencies

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) and UNAIDS on Friday joined forces to tackle the growing link between HIV/AIDS and regional food shortages in Southern Africa.

"Food aid plays a pivotal role in responding to HIV/AIDS. The first thing poor families affected by HIV/AIDS ask for is not cash or antiretrovirals, it is food. Food has to be one of the weapons in the arsenal against this disease," WFP Executive Director James Morris said in a statement.

Under the agreement, WFP and UNAIDS will direct their joint efforts to make food security an integral part of the battle waged by governments and partners against HIV/AIDS - especially in Africa, South-East Asia and the Caribbean.

The agencies called for a "radical and urgent global approach" to address the links between the disease, chronic food shortages and malnutrition.

"People living with HIV/AIDS and those who are malnourished are caught in a vicious cycle. Hunger often forces people to engage in high-risk survival strategies, such as sex work, which in turn exposes them to HIV/AIDS," Dr. Peter Piot, UNAIDS Executive Director, said.