Health Seeking And Sexual Behaviour Among Primary Health Care Patients In Nairobi, Kenya

Abstract

{ Observational studies have associated vitamin A deficiency with vaginal shedding of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) type 1-infected cells and mother-to-child HIV-1 transmission. To assess the effect of vitamin A supplementation on vaginal shedding of HIV-1, a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of 6 weeks of daily oral vitamin A (10,000 IU of retinyl palmitate) was conducted among 400 HIV-1-infected women in Mombasa, Kenya. At follow-up, there was no statistically significant difference in the prevalence of HIV-1 DNA (18% vs. 21%