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BEIJING, Dec. 8 (Xinhuanet) -- A new study conducted in Africa suggests malaria makes people more likely to contract AIDS and vice versa.
Reseachers studied disease patterns in 200,000 adults in Kenya and reported HIV makes people more vulnerable to malaria by weakening their immune system and malaria may worsen a patient's pre-existing HIV infection, possibly making it more communicable.
The scientists discovered within this group that about 5 percent of all HIV infections could be attributed to malaria, and 10 percent of all adult malaria episodes could be attributed to HIV. The study suggests that malaria may be a contributing factor to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa
"These are two elephants affecting public health in Africa," said the study's lead author Leith Abu-Raddad of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. "Any interaction between them is consequential. We can't yet say how many cases of HIV malaria has caused over all of Africa."
Dual infection has created an estimated 8,500 new HIV cases and nearly a million malaria episodes since 1980, the researchers said.
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Reseachers studied disease patterns in 200,000 adults in Kenya and reported HIV makes people more vulnerable to malaria by weakening their immune system and malaria may worsen a patient's pre-existing HIV infection, possibly making it more communicable.
The scientists discovered within this group that about 5 percent of all HIV infections could be attributed to malaria, and 10 percent of all adult malaria episodes could be attributed to HIV. The study suggests that malaria may be a contributing factor to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa
"These are two elephants affecting public health in Africa," said the study's lead author Leith Abu-Raddad of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. "Any interaction between them is consequential. We can't yet say how many cases of HIV malaria has caused over all of Africa."
Dual infection has created an estimated 8,500 new HIV cases and nearly a million malaria episodes since 1980, the researchers said.
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