The impact of HIV/AIDS on household food and nutrition security in Suba district was studied in a quasi longitudinal study. Households with People Living with HIV/AIDS (Index-25%) and three surrounding households (control-75%) were considered for the study. Data were collected on demographic characteristics of the households, land ownership, cultivated land by crop, crop yield, livestock kept by category, diet composition, frequency of hunger, experience of weight loss in the households and expenditure on food. Categorization among the index households was based on disease progression stages: Stage 1(with no symptoms), Stage 2 (Symptomatic-(CD4>200, CD4 <200) and on antiretroviral, Stage 3( bedridden patients), and Stage 4 (households with HIV related deaths). Results showed households with bedridden members had the highest land ownership of more than 3 acres (62 per cent), while those with CD4 < 200 and on ARVs had the least land (28 per cent). The proportion of index households with uncultivated land was 3 times higher than control households. Index households significantly planted less maize but equally planted beans, sorghum/millet, cassava, groundnuts and tomatoes, whose yields were comparatively less. Control (non index) households kept more goats, sheep, cattle and chicken than index households. Households that had suffered HIV related deaths had lower overall rate of expenditure on food due to reduction in household income. Death increased household consumption of home produced food partially making up for the lost income. The incidence of hunger was found to be slightly higher among the controls with chronically ill (65 per cent) than among index households (63 per cent). Eating of non balanced food and loss of weight in the last one month was significantly higher in index than non index households. The mean expenditure on food was also less in index (8.5 US $) than non index households (9.2 US $). It is imperative, therefore, that appropriate intervention measures be put in place to combat food and nutrition insecurity among People Living with HIV/AIDS and their families in order for them to benefit from the life prolonging effects of ARVs.

Malnutrition remains one of the major problems in developing countries affecting both adults and children under 5 years. The use of binary logistic regression model was employed, and parameters of interest estimated. Results showed that 29.3 percent of the children were acutely malnourished. There was an insignificant difference between household food security and child malnutrition status  Factors such as the age of caregivers, household size, the gender of the child, and the level of education of caregivers, if the child was weighed at birth, source of income, the occupation status, and the distance to the water source remained insignificant at a multivariate level. However, factors such as full-term maternal pregnancy, the child being ill for the past two weeks, and the study site were strong significant factors affecting the status of childhood malnutrition. Moreover, mothers with full-term pregnancy up to the birth were 53 percent less likely to have malnourished infants when compared to their counterparts whose pregnancy was not term. Mothers/caregivers who traveled more than half a kilometer were twice more likely to have their children malnourished than those who had traveled less than half a kilometer. It recommended that the policymakers and the entire County government of Marsabit should build more social amenities that provide pregnant women with full-term maternal checkups for both antenatal and postnatal care. County government of Marsabit should lobby and mobilize resources for food aid or cash transfers to households.