HIV-positive part of malaria prevention

Uganda is one of three African nations set to benefit from a US $1.3 billion Presidential Malaria Initiative (PMI) recently announced by US President George W Bush. PMI team head John Paul Clark told a stakeholders conference on Thursday in the capital, Kampala, that the strategy planned to reduce malaria-related deaths by up to 50 percent in Uganda, Angola and Tanzania. According to the local New Vision newspaper, the five-year programme will aim for 85 percent coverage of vulnerable groups, including HIV-positive people, with the new combination treatment of insecticide-treated bed nets, intermittent preventive treatment and indoor residual spraying. Research in Uganda between 1990 and 1998 found that HIV-positive people were twice as likely to contract malaria, and the disease was likely to affect them more severely. The PMI funds are expected to be available once the operational plan has been approved by the steering committee in late December.