Yogurt probiotics help restore gut health in HIV patients
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Yogurt probiotics help restore gut health in HIV patients
June 25, 11:22 PM · Danielle Jones - Colorado HIV and AIDS Examiner
In the June issue of Nature Medicine is a news feature which describes
a pilot project called Western Heads East (WHE) based out of the
University of Western Ontario in Canada. This project takes place in
Mwanza, Tanzania, a Sub-Saharan east African country bordered by the
Indian Ocean, Kenya, Uganda and Zambia. The country of Tanzania saw
its first cases of HIV/AIDS in 1983 and today there are approximately
1.4 million people living with the disease. The WHE project was
established in 2004 and sends university students to remote
communities each year to teach the local women how to make yogurt with
scientifically developed probiotics. The program serves two purposes;
first it empowers the women of the community, known as “yogurt mamas”,
by enabling them to provide economically for their families and second
it provides extra nutrition to the community, especially for those
infected with HIV.
Studies have shown that in HIV positive individuals, probiotics can
improve immune cell counts, alleviate diarrhea and lower the risk of
HIV transmission. Shortly after HIV was identified as the infectious
agent that causes AIDS, researchers noticed that the gastrointestinal
tract of infected individuals was a site of significant early HIV
replication and destruction of CD4+ T cells (an important part of the
immune system which attacks infections in the body) which caused
damage to the intestine’s mucosa lining.
Investigators with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases propose that the destruction of the immune cells allows
bacteria to cross over that “leaky” lining of the intestine into the
blood stream which activates a process that possibly accelerates the
progression from HIV to AIDS. Animal studies have shown that the
probiotics found in yogurt can repair the destroyed lining of the
intestine and may prolong the health of HIV infected persons.
Probiotics may also protect HIV-infected persons from other infections
caused by microbes native to the gastrointestinal tract, such as E.
coli. In health persons, there is a well maintained balanced between
“good” and “bad” bacteria, which may become unbalanced during HIV
infection. The probiotics work by competing with pathogenic bacteria
for nutrients and release antimicrobial substances.
Transmission of HIV infection increases in cases where a common
vaginal infection known as bacterial vaginosis is present. Studies
have shown that when delivered in combination with antibiotics,
probiotics have a cure rate of 90% for bacterial vaginosis, compared
to a 50% cure rate for antibiotics alone.
The work in Mwanza, Tanzania is currently being done on a small scale.
Communication problems and lack of a qualified work force to produce
the product make delivering the yogurt in larger numbers difficult.
However, the impact these women are having is manifesting itself ten
fold in that now they are taking significant steps to change the
course of HIV/AIDS is their communities by spreading the message of
prevention and treatment to their peers.
Yogurt, developed at Brescia University College in collaboration with
the Canadian R&D Centre for Probiotics, was named "Fiti",
a Swahili term that symbolizes health and well being.
Photo Source: Western Head East Project Site
For more info: Tanzania Commission for AIDS
HIV InSite University of California San Francisco Center for HIV
Information, 10/2007
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