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Duke University

Publication Date

Fall 2006

Program Name

Cameroon: Development and Social Change

Abstract

In this paper I will discuss the range of realities and interventions relating to nutrition for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in the Northwest Province of Cameroon. After discussing the background of the topic, including the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the facts about nutrition and HIV, I will move on to discuss the methodology and findings from my fieldwork in the provincial capital, Bamenda. In the section titled “Realities,” I will detail the poverty, local diet, and stigma that PLWHA face everyday, in the context of the province with the nation’s highest prevalence rate, and present PLWHA’s own justification of the importance of nutrition. In the next section, I will describe the existing interventions that address nutrition, beginning with public and government-based institutions and programs, such as the National AIDS Control Committee and National Strategic Plan, Provincial Technical Group in the Fight Against AIDS, Provincial Hospital, and ARV subsidies and Therapy Committees. I will next discuss two private interventions, Heifer Project International and the Mbingo Baptist Health Center. I conclude with recommendations for the future. Throughout the paper, data obtained from fieldwork in Bamenda and individual private interviews will be interspersed with information from official publications and reports.

Disciplines

Medicine and Health Sciences

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