Share & more
The recently released findings of a study in Tanzania have revealed that daily doses of multivitamins may slow the HI virus.
The study, which began in 1995, analysed women that were given multivitamins or a dummy pill. Only 7 percent of 271 women who took multivitamins developed AIDS, compared with 12 percent of 267 women who took the dummy pill.
"It's a low-cost intervention that could result in major savings and be helpful to many individuals in terms of better quality of life," said Dr Wafie Fawzi of Harvard School of Public Health, who led the study reported in last week's New England Journal of Medicine.
The researchers at Harvard and in Tanzania that conducted the study stress that while vitamins are by no means a substitute for AIDS drugs, vitamin supplements could be used in developing countries to delay the need for AIDS drugs. The high-dose multivitamin containing vitamins B,C and E used in the study cost about US $15 for a years supply, compared to AIDS drugs in Tanzania which cost about US$300 a year.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions