Alternative medicine

Various forms of alternative medicine have been used to treat symptoms or alter the course of the disease. Current studies indicate that alternative medicine therapies have little effect on the mortality or morbidity of the disease, but may improve the quality of life of individuals with AIDS. The psychological benefits of these therapies are the most important use. Acupuncture has been used to alleviate some symptoms with no success and cannot cure the HIV infection.Several randomized clinical trials testing the effect of herbal medicines have shown that there is no evidence that these herbs have any effect on the progression of the disease, but may instead produce serious side-effects.

Morbidity and mortality among HIV-infected adults with adequate dietary nutritional intake is unaffected by multivitamin supplementation. A large Tanzanian trial in immunologically and nutritionally compromised pregnant and lactating women showed a number of benefits to daily multivitamin supplementation for both mothers and children. Dietary intake of micronutrients at RDA levels by HIV-infected adults is recommended by the World Health Organization.There is some evidence that vitamin A supplementation in children reduces mortality and improves growth. Daily doses of selenium can suppress HIV viral burden with an associated improvement of the CD4 count. Selenium can be used as an adjunct therapy to standard antiviral treatments, but cannot itself reduce mortality and morbidity.