afrol News, 26 June - “It’s often overlooked that one essential thing in the treatment of AIDS or HIV is good nutrition,” was the message the American First Lady, Laura Bush, told reporters at Hospital Fann in Dakar, Senegal.

Mrs Bush, who mounted a tour in five African countries, arrived in Senegal on Monday. She would use the tour to visit the United States sponsored projects on health, specifically HIV/AIDS and malaria in the targeted countries.

The third biggest hospital in Senegal is partly funded by USAID.

Flanked by her daughter, Jenna, Laura Bush conducted a tour in the hospital’s garden and kitchen before she addressed news-hungry journalists.

The hospital’s garden has been giving chance to patients to learn new techniques of raising vegetables such as spinach and kale.

She gave prominence to nutrition for HIV/AIDS patients. She said by keeping patients adequately fed enables antiretroviral drugs a chance to work.

Until 1946, malaria had been an eyesore in the United States. Mrs Bush is confident that through concerted efforts, the disease can surely be eradicated in Africa where hundreds of thousands die of it yearly.

The US First Lady visited a primary school in Dakar as well as met President Abdoulaye Wade and his wife Viviane before she flew to Mozambique.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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