Aids-related deaths in South Africa: 1 987 419 at noon on December 13 2006
Research in Kenya indicates that the rapid spread of HIV/Aids across Africa is linked to malaria.
‘We knew the relationship, but not the impact it had on the spread. Now we have a reference point,” says Ayub Manya, an epidemiologist with the Kenyan National Malaria Control Programme.
People with malaria and HIV/Aids are more likely to transmit HIV, according to the study published in the journal Science this week. When someone with HIV/Aids contracts malaria, it creates a surge in their blood levels of HIV, making them more than twice as likely to transmit. An HIV infection also increases susceptibility to malaria.
The team, led by Laith Abu-Raddad of the University of Washington in Seattle, United States, tested their mathematical model on data gathered from Kisumu, Kenya, and found that the interaction between the diseases was to blame for many thousands of HIV infections and almost a million malaria episodes since 1980.
The study injects a much-needed scientific approach to the protection of vulnerable groups and says that health policy should emphasise malaria prevention and early treatment for HIV-infected people.
Kenya has already stepped up malaria prevention efforts. Pregnant women who are HIV positive receive three times the usual dosage of the drug to protect them from malaria, says Manya.
Source: www.SciDev.Net