Global AIDS Conference || Toronto 2006
By Erv Dyer
TORONTO -- If poverty and ignorance are accelerators of the HIV epidemic, malaria is, too. Roll Back Malaria Partners and a coalition of anti-poverty activists are urging those who fight HIV to become more vocal and concerned about malaria, which strikes at least 250 million people world-wide annually. Dr. Louis Da Gama, the malaria advocacy director at the Global Health Advocates, an NGO that monitors health practices in Africa, called them twin menaces because HIV and malaria impact millions of people and disproportionately burden women and children. During the XVI International AIDS Conference, a panel of physicians and activists joined HIV activists to share ways to address both diseases simultaneously. Both diseases demand better treatment, prevention and methods to empower women to acquire better health services. Malaria disproportionately affects the poor, with 58 percent of malaria deaths occurring in the poorest 20 percent of the world’s population, according to the The Global Fund, an agency that provides grants to reduce the infections of HIV, tuberculosis and malaria. “Having HIV or malaria can be deadly, but having both at the same time is particularly dangerous,” said Yvonne Chaka Chaka, a celebrated singer known as the Mariah Carey of Africa and a UNICEF spokesperson on malaria in eastern and southern Africa. “If you are pregnant, it can lead to serious complications for the mother, as well as increasing the chance that the baby will be born underweight and possibly HIV-positive. HIV antenatal services should always include malaria treatment and prevention.” Roll Back Malaria was launched in 1998 by the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Bank. The agencies are supplying condoms and mosquito nets treated with pesticides to several countries in an effort to stem the infection of both diseases. About 40 percent of the world is exposed to malaria. It hits Asia and South America, but the highest rates of infection occur in sub-Saharan Africa, according to United Nation reports. Up to 500 million people a year will have at least one bout of malaria, a 3,000-year-old disease where infected mosquitoes will pass the parasite that causes the malady onto humans. Annually, one million will die. Because it is so common and so crippling – sometimes keeping people fatigued and weakened for weeks – malaria slows African economies by $12 billion a year, Roll Back Malaria Partners say. The presence of malaria in a region reduces tourism, influences social economic decisions, and slows industrial development and capital growth. Malaria and HIV are tragically linked. Poverty is an engine for both, leaving fractured economies unable to afford medicines, treatment or proper awareness campaigns. Scientists say there is research to suggest that having one and catching the other can lead to treatment failure. According to Charles Gilks, a physician who works with the World Health Organization on HIV and malaria, there is evidence that because HIV weakens the immune system, it leaves the body less able to fight off malaria. Treating malaria with blood transfusions, which has been a common practice, would often expose children to a greater risk of HIV infection. In addition, having malaria present in the placenta while pregnant could increase the likelihood of an HIV-infected mother passing the virus on to her child. Also, some studies show that in the presence of malaria, HIV replicates faster in the blood. “People with malaria have no voice,” said the singer Chaka Chaka. She lost a band member to a virulent strain of malaria and another friend died five days after contracting the affliction. The death prompted Chaka Chaka to get involved. “Now is the time,” she said, “to walk the talk.”
Erv Dyer is a reporter for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.