U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention
A new study reveals that people infected with bilharzia, or other parasitic worms, are more likely to become infected with HIV than normal persons. This was proven through an experiment where the infectious dose of an HIV-like virus necessary to infect rhesus macaques was found to be 17 times lower in animals with acute schistosomiasis than in controls. The animals co-infected with Schistosoma mansoni also showed higher memory cell concentrations of virus casuing a more rapid progression to AIDS.
These findings prove the assumption that persons living in highly endemic areas for parasitic worms have a higher risk of acquiring HIV/AIDS.
Previous studies by other research groups have demonstrated that the presence of schistosome infections increases viral replication in animal or human hosts with established immunodeficiency virus infections.
Both findings are surely to have profound public health implications for the under-developed areas of the world where both parasitic worms and HIV virus are endemic.
Tags: AIDS, bilharzia, HIV
Entries (RSS)
Ohhhhhh..Third world….
always had them all, Bilharziasis/ Leishmaniasis (Kala azar)/ Malaria/ Rift valley/ Onchocerciasis (River blindness)…..etc.
Then HIV, civil wars & starvation
like all that is not enough
yeah ya mariam
but when u say schistosoma,onchocerciasis,kak azar and all these beautiful things,u r talking about Africa specifically and not all the third world countries.
One clarification:
Kala azar is an Indian name means Black fever… Malaria is Italian means Bad air….. Sir Ronald Ross, Nobel prize winner for Physiology or Medicine in 1902 for discovering the life cycle of the malarial parasite Plasmodium, was a navy officer in India….River blindness is not only present in central Africa, but also there’s small endemic foci in Yemen, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, southern Mexico, and Venezuela.
My friends always tell me that I’m mad about tropical. Am I?
I would have to agree with your friend :)))
The problem is..one thing leads to another & another and eventually it just becomes this gigantic loop of mysery for these poor people
I meant that when you are talking about all these diseases togther in one place,you mean Africa which is famous for its endemics and also many epidemics.
YES Mariam you are mad about tropicals, no doubt.
I know, and I’m sorry.. I just wanted to show off..
But having it all here in Africa makes it a real huge place for scientific studies. Look at the bright side 🙂 We are rich!
So, how things go? I mean what really happens makes our parasite here host the HIV virus in our bodies with full warm invitation? or it’s just a trial?
I think Nehal these were findings, not yet supported by Why’s and How’s. I couldn’t find anything in specific that is suspected to cause such behaviour.
this topic about virophage has raised must questions in me . can this be applied one day in the war against viral infections? in this case, this can be called a useful in-vivo biological war 🙂 i think this might redirect the attention of researches to use it against HIV.
of course it won’t be in one day,Rama
I think the great benefit of variophages will be in gene therapy as there will no need for deletion of infectious genes from the viral vector and this will overcome a major problem which is developing an infection from such vectors.