Friday, 26 June 2009

Yogurt probiotics help restore gut health in HIV patients

From Examiner, Colorado, United States
By 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.

Read more >>

No comments: