Malaria could fuels MTCT - study

Malaria plays a key role in the mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of HIV during pregnancy, researchers said in Cameroon on Thursday. A study presented during the Pan-African Malaria Conference in the capital Yaounde revealed that substances known as "proinflammatory cytokines", and found in high levels in placentas infected with malaria, could stimulate HIV replication in the placenta. According to Anfumbom Kfutwah of the Pasteur Centre's virology laboratory in France, findings showed that MTCT increased three months after the rains peaked. "Our research highlights the fact that placental malaria ... plays an important role in mother-to-child HIV transmission in utero [in the uterus] that has been underestimated so far," Kfutwah said in a statement.