Review
Effect of malaria on HIV/AIDS transmission and progression
1 Department of Medical Parasitology, School of Biomedical and Laboratory Sciences, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Gondar, Gondar, Ethiopia
2 Department of Medical Microbiology, School of Biomedical and Laboratory Sciences, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Gondar, Gondar, Ethiopia
3 Department of Immunology and Molecular Biology, School of Biomedical and Laboratory Sciences, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Gondar, Gondar, Ethiopia
Parasites & Vectors 2013, 6:18 doi:10.1186/1756-3305-6-18
Published: 17 January 2013Abstract
Malaria and HIV are among the two most important global health problems of developing countries. They cause more than 4 million deaths a year. These two infections interact bidirectionally and synergistically with each other. HIV infection increases the risk of an increase in the severity of malaria infection and burdens of malaria, which in turn facilitates the rate of malaria transmission. Malaria infection is also associated with strong CD4+ cell activation and up-regulation of proinflammatory cytokines and it provides an ideal microenvironment for the spread of the virus among the CD4+ cells and for rapid HIV-1 replication. Additionally, malaria increases blood viral burden by different mechanisms. Therefore, high concentrations of HIV-1 RNA in the blood are predictive of disease progression, and correlate with the risk of blood-borne, vertical, and sexual transmission of the virus. Therefore, this article aims to review information about HIV malaria interactions, the effect of malaria on HIV transmission and progression and the implications related to prevention and treatment of coinfection.
