Tiny parasitic worms that cause chronic illness in millions of
sub-Saharan Africans may increase their chances of contracting
HIV, according to a new report. This study comes just a week
after another set of researchers announced a different theory
regarding a factor that could increase Africans’ susceptibility
to the HIV virus, hypothesizing that a genetic variant found in
people of African descent raises the risk of HIV infection. In
the latest study, researchers infected monkeys with the worms
that cause schistosomiasis, and then injected them with a form
of the HIV virus. They found that much lower amounts of the
virus were necessary to give AIDS to the monkeys that had the
parasitic worms, as compared to parasite-free monkeys. The
phenomenon… needs to be verified in humans. But with primates a
generally reliable model of AIDS pathology, it could help
explain why sub-Saharan Africa, where 160 million people are
infected with schistosomiasis, has 10% of the world’s population
and 62% of its AIDS cases [Wir