Nutrition interventions are an important component of comprehensive care and support for people living with HIV (PLHIV), helping to manage symptoms, promote response to treatment and improving functioning and quality of life. With support from USAID/East Africa, FANTA-2 works with partners in east, central, and southern Africa to strengthen the capacity of health care providers to integrate nutrition interventions into HIV care and treatment services. As part of this initiative, FANTA-2 worked with the East, Central and Southern African Health Community (ECSA-HC) to develop Nutrition and HIV/AIDS: A Training Manual for Nurses and Midwives.

As front-line care providers, nurses play a critical role in HIV care. In many settings it is nurses who have the strongest opportunity to provide routine counseling and other support to PLHIV. Equipping nurses with nutrition and HIV knowledge and skills enables them to provide effective nutrition care and support. Nursing school curricula in the region often include little or no information on the subject. This manual is designed to address this gap by providing materials that nursing school instructors can use to teach nursing students the knowledge and skills needed for nutrition care and support of PLHIV. While designed to be used for pre-service training, it can also be used or adapted for in-service training.

The manual is organized into three parts. Part I includes introductory sessions with basic information about HIV. Part II aims to build technical knowledge. Part III provides guidance on nutrition care for different clients living with HIV. These sessions are organized based on a life cycle approach, with separate sessions on caring for adults, pregnant and lactating women, infants and young children, children 2-9 years old, and adolescents living with HIV.