INFECTIOUS DISEASES - Blackherbals.com

Malaria Fuels HIV/AidsSpread In AfricaBy Will DunhamDecember 8, 2006Note - What the story ISN'T saying is thatmosquitoes are SPREADING HIV. Every time amosquito or ANY biting insect takes blood from aninfected human and then bites the next person, scoresof viruses and bacteria are transmitted. To write anews story without pointing to the obvious diseasevectoringreality of mosquitoes is gross deception atthe least. This is a particularly odiousstatement: "Higher viral load causes more HIVtransmission, and malaria causes high HIV viralload." Mosquitos are already KNOWN to transmitover 70 different retroviruses. HIV is aretrovirus...but there is no mention of any of this inthe following story. - edWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Malaria may be helpingspread the AIDS virus across Africa, the continenthardest hit by the incurable disease, scientists said onThursday.The way the two diseases interact greatly expandsthe prevalence of both among people in sub-SaharanAfrica, a team of scientists said in a study in thejournal Science.Malaria, a mosquito-borne disease caused by aparasite, greatly boosts viral load -- the amount ofhuman immunodeficiency virus in the blood ofinfected people -- making them more likely to infecta sex partner with HIV, they stated."Higher viral load causes more HIV transmission,and malaria causes high HIV viral load," said leadstudy author Laith Abu-Raddad of the FredHutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle andthe University of Washington.Abu-Raddad, an AIDS researcher, estimated thatmalaria has helped HIV infect hundreds of thousandsand perhaps millions of people in sub-SaharanAfrica. AIDS was first identified a quarter centuryago.At the same time, HIV fuels malaria's spread becauseHIV-infected people are more susceptible to malariaas a result of HIV ravaging the immune system, thebody's natural defenses, the researchers said.AIDS and malaria are concentrated in sub-SaharanAfrica. Abu-Raddad said scientists were puzzledwhen they realized that the risky sexual behavior bypeople in the region was not by itself sufficient toexplain the swift spread of HIV, so other factors must beinvolved.They focused their work on Kisumu, a Kenyan city byLake Victoria where HIV and malaria are both common.They said 5 percent of HIV infections can be blamed onthe increased HIV viral load due to malaria, and 10percent of adult malaria cases can be blamed on HIV.Since 1980, 8,500 more people got HIV infections, andthere were 980,000 more episodes of malaria (a personcan get it more than once) in a city whose adultpopulation is 200,000, the study found.PUBLIC HEALTH EFFORTSThe findings have implications for public health efforts,Abu-Raddad said, showing the importance for authoritiesto tackle these diseases together.Of the 39.5 million people worldwide infected with HIV,24.7 are in the poor countries of sub-Saharan Africa.About 2.1 million of the world's 2.9 million AIDS deathsin the past year were in this region.Malaria kills more than a million people annually, mostlyyoung children in sub-Saharan Africa.The researchers produced their results with amathematical model using HIV and malaria infectiondata gathered in Malawi by James Kublin of theHutchinson Center. This enabled them to quantify for thefirst time the synergy between malaria on HIV and its tollon people.Scientists previously determined that a lack of malecircumcision and the incidence of genital herpes alsowere facilitating the spread of HIV. Abu-Raddad notedthat circumcised men are much less likely to get HIV,and that genital herpes opens a door for HIV to infect aperson.Abu-Raddad said malaria now can be considered a thirdserious factor facilitating the spread of HIV.The two diseases drive one another even though theyhave different modes of transmission -- malaria bymosquito and HIV predominantly by sexual intercourse,Abu-Raddad noted.Abu-Raddad said once an HIV person gets malaria, his orher viral load goes up and stays higher for six to eightweeks, making the person far more infectious to others.http://www.rense.com/general74/mala.htm☻☻☻☻☻☻☻-28- Traditional African Clinic December 2006