Africa: Cheap multivitamin slows time to AIDS and death in African women

Multivitamins costing $15 per person per year significantly reduced the risk of HIV disease progression and death in HIV-positive pregnant women in Tanzania, according to a study published in the July 1st edition of the New England Journal of Medicine. The investigators conclude that multivitamins would be a cheap, simple, and effective means of delaying the need for antiretroviral therapy in HIV-positive pregnant women in resource limited settings. An accompanying editorial praises the rigour of the investigators study, and although it calls for further studies into the benefits of multivitamins involving large populations it says that treatment programmes and doctors would be justified in offering multivitamins.