Malaria linked to increase in HIV-positive babies

A Ugandan study has suggested that women infected with malaria and HIV are more likely to pass the HI virus to their unborn babies. The study, conducted among 746 HIV-positive women, found that babies became HIV-positive in 40 percent of cases where the mother also had malaria, compared to 15 percent in cases where the mother was free of malaria. The lead author of the report, Heena Brahmbhatt, was quoted by the BBC as saying: "Our findings show that co-infection with placental malaria and HIV during pregnancy significantly increases the risk of HIV transmission from mother to newborn." Brahmbhatt and her colleagues called for urgent trials to determine whether controlling malaria in HIV-positive women reduced transmission rates to babies. Research shows that transmission of HIV from mother to child is one of the main ways that HIV is spread in Africa.