HIV And Malaria Help Each Other Spread

oops1

Main Category: HIV / AIDS News
Article Date: 08 Dec 2006 - 16:00pm (PST)
| email this article | printer friendly | view or write opinions | Article Also Appears In
Tropical DiseasesImmune System / Vaccines
  


Useful Article?
Digg It
Del.icio.us
NewsVine
Reddit



Scientists working in Kenya have found that the interaction between malaria and HIV infection may be causing both to spread more quickly in sub-Saharan Africa. The researchers are from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington.

The study is published in the Dec. 8, 2006 issue of Science.

After conducting tests in Kisumu, a town on the shores of Lake Victoria where there is a high incidence of malaria, researchers noticed that a co-infection effect may be occuring between malaria and HIV infection.

Once malaria gets into the blood of a person with HIV, it increases the level of the HIV virus by up to ten times during a malaria fever episode. This significantly increases the risk of them infecting a sexual partner with HIV. And once a person has HIV, they are more susceptible to malaria, and so it continues.

This could explain why HIV is spreading more quickly than through sexual transmission alone in that region.

The researchers used a mathematical model developed with HIV and malaria infection data from Malawi to estimate that in a population of 200,000, since 1980, 8,500 excess HIV infections and nearly 1 million excess malarial episodes (when the fever breaks out from time to time in an infected person) may be due to this \"partnership\" between the two diseases.

They suggest it is possible that similar effects may exist between HIV and other common diseases such as genital herpes and tuberculosis, which are widespread in the region.

\"Dual Infection with HIV and Malaria Fuels the Spread of Both Diseases in Sub-Saharan Africa\"
Laith J. Abu-Raddad, Padmaja Patnaik, and James G. Kublin
Science 8 December 2006: Vol. 314. no. 5805, pp. 1603 - 1606
DOI: 10.1126/science.1132338
Click here to view Abstract.

Written by: Catharine Paddock
Writer: Medical News Today



Science 8 December 2006:
Vol. 314. no. 5805, pp. 1603 - 1606
DOI: 10.1126/science.1132338
Prev | Table of Contents | Next  

Reports
Dual Infection with HIV and Malaria Fuels the Spread of Both Diseases in Sub-Saharan Africa
Laith J. Abu-Raddad,1,2* Padmaja Patnaik,3 James G. Kublin4,5*
Mounting evidence has revealed pathological interactions between HIV and malaria in dually infected patients, but the public health implications of the interplay have remained unclear. A transient almost one-log elevation in HIV viral load occurs during febrile malaria episodes; in addition, susceptibility to malaria is enhanced in HIV-infected patients. A mathematical model applied to a setting in Kenya with an adult population of roughly 200,000 estimated that, since 1980, the disease interaction may have been responsible for 8,500 excess HIV infections and 980,000 excess malaria episodes. Co-infection might also have facilitated the geographic expansion of malaria in areas where HIV prevalence is high. Hence, transient and repeated increases in HIV viral load resulting from recurrent co-infection with malaria may be an important factor in promoting the spread of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa.

1 Statistical Center for HIV/AIDS Research and Prevention, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA 98109, USA.
2 Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA98195, USA.
3 Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA.
4 International Health Program, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
5 Clinical Research Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA 98109, USA.


* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: laith@scharp.org (L.J.A.); jkublin@fhcrc.org (J.G.K.)