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Health
Worms can make people more susceptible to AIDS
Article published on the 2008-07-29 Latest update 2008-07-30 10:37 TU
A local Nigerian swimming hole, also the site of schistosomiasis
(Credit: E. Staub/The Carter Center)
People infected with parasitic worms can be much more susceptible to HIV-AIDS, because their immune systems are greatly weakened, according to new joint study by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Harvard University. The report was erleased as the United Nations HIV/AIDS programme prepares to launch its annual report next week.
The CDC/Harvard study showed that monkeys infected with the parasitic schistosomiasis—also known as bilharzia or snail fever—were infected with HIV at a much lower doses than those without worm infections. They needed 17 times less of the HIV virus to contract the disease.
The researchers hypothesise that this finding could apply to people as well.
"If we can do something that will control parasitic worm infection, that in turn could technically decrease AIDS virus transmission among people," Dr. Ruth Ruprecht, an AIDS researcher and professor at
Ruprecht, who was part of the joint study, said the parasitic monkeys not only contracted HIV more easily, the ones who did had a much higher concentration of the disease in their bloodstreams.
Dr. Evan Secor of the CDC in Atlanta, Georgia, who worked on the study, believes that those who have access to unsanitary water supplies are more vulnerable to getting HIV.
Bilharzia is contracted when people have contact with unsanitary water where tiny flatworms live, usually snail-infested freshwater and lakes.
Some 200 million people are infected with the water-borne bilharzia disease worldwide. It is common in sub-Saharan Africa, where nearly two-thirds of all HIV-AIDS patients live.
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