Vitamins may slow HIV

A daily multivitamin tablet may slow the progress of the Aids virus and allow doctors to delay treatment of the deadly disease, according to a study which may prove especially helpful in developing countries where resources are scarce.

B Vitamins, along with vitamins C and E, may also reduce the symptoms of the disease, including fatigue, nausea, vomiting, difficulty swallowing, and mouth and stomach problems, the study found.

But the test of 1078 pregnant women in Tanzania also found that vitamin A seems to counteract the benefits of giving the supplements.

About 40 million people are infected with HIV, the Aids virus, and less than 8 per cent of the people who should be getting treatments actually are.

"Multivitamin supplements delay the progression of HIV disease and provide an effective, low-cost means of delaying the initiation of anti-retroviral therapy in HIV-infected women," said the research team, led by Wafaie Fawzi of the Harvard School of Public Health.

The effect of the multivitamin was strongest during the first two years, according to the Fawzi team.

Although the benefits of multivitamin therapy, which cost about US$15 ($23) a year, were statistically significant, they were not dramatic.

The chance of dying or developing an advanced case of HIV was 24.7 per cent among the multivitamin recipients, compared to 31.3 per cent among women who received placebo tablets instead.

The researchers said the recipients of the vitamin supplements tended to have higher levels of disease-fighting cells and lower levels of HIV virus particles in the blood. But in cases where vitamin A had been added to the treatment, the benefit faded and those women fared about as well as the volunteers getting placebos.

Those findings, reported in this week's edition of the New England Journal of Medicine, should be viewed in light of previous research showing that vitamin A supplements increased the likelihood that a mother would spread HIV to her child, the researchers said.

"Adding vitamin A to the multivitamin supplement apparently reduced the benefit of the latter regimen, raising questions about the safety of including vitamin A in supplements recommended for HIV-infected adults."

VITAMINS V HIV

THE EXPERIMENT

* To investigate the effects of multivitamins (B, C, and E) and vitamin A (preformed vitamin A and beta carotene) on women with HIV

* 1078 infected women took part for periods ranging from four to six years

THE RESULTS

* 31.1 per cent of the 267 women who took a placebo died or reached stage 4 of the disease

* 24.7 per cent of the 271 women who took multivitamins died or reached stage 4

* The effects of receiving vitamin A alone were insignificant

* Adding vitamin A to the multivitamins reduced the some of the benefits

- REUTERS