Malaria is reclaiming the world's attention after years of playing second fiddle to HIV. Experts are now convinced that the disease plays a greater role in the AIDS pandemic than was previously thought.

"The disease has for too long been considered a separate health concern to HIV... it is high time that malaria was shown the same global dedication as HIV/AIDS," Malama Muleba, executive director of the Zambia Malaria Foundation (ZMF), told IRIN/PlusNews.

He acknowledged that growing scientific interest in the dangers of co-infection between the two diseases had helped put Malaria back in the spotlight.

Although the two infections have formed a deadly combination in most of sub-Saharan Africa for decades, earlier studies were not able to confirm the impact of malaria on HIV and vice versa.

Now, the findings of a recent study by the University of Washington's Public Health Sciences (PHS) research division show that malaria fuels the spread of HIV, while HIV has also boosted malaria-infection rates.

Published in the December 2006 issue of Science, a leading research journal, the study showed that because malaria increases the viral load [amount of HIV] in an HIV-positive person, it also makes HIV more transmissible to a sexual partner.

"Malaria has contributed considerably to the spread of HIV by increasing HIV transmission probability per sexual act," one of the study's co-authors, Dr Laith Abu-Raddad, confirmed in the Science article.

The researchers found that, conversely, HIV also plays a role in the spread of malaria, as the weakening of the immune system by the HI virus fuels a rise in adult malaria-infection rates, and may have facilitated the expansion of malaria in Africa.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that over 90 percent of the one million global malaria deaths per year occur in African countries, while the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) says malaria is the leading cause of death in many parts of Africa, with one child dying from the disease every 30 seconds.

On the occasion of Africa Malaria Day, on 25 April each year, the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, an initiative created in 1998 by WHO, UNICEF, the UN Development Programme and the World Bank, announced its target of securing a 50 percent success rate for malaria grant applications to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the largest international funder of malaria programmes.

"Malaria control works ... if the richest nations expand their support at the [upcoming] June G8 meeting in Germany, we can dramatically reduce the one million deaths a year from malaria," said Michel Kazatchkine, executive director of the Fund, in a statement on Africa Malaria Day.
In Namibia, where the HIV prevalence rate is close to 20 percent and malaria accounts for almost nine percent of all hospital deaths, the Social Marketing Association (SMA), a non-governmental organisation, also stressed the importance of ongoing support in combating the two diseases.

The SMA's regional coordinator, Mauritius Ngishindwa, told IRIN/PlusNews: "It [the malaria/HIV co-infection findings] is scary, but also very important because malaria, in a sense, had been sidelined by the AIDS pandemic ... it warrants more than an isolated annual event to really address the two diseases."

Echoing these sentiments, Malama Muleba, director of the Zambia Malaria Foundation, said events such as World AIDS Day and Africa Malaria Day should be ongoing initiatives, as infections and deaths by both diseases were a daily occurrence.

"The political will shown by the continent's health ministers during the recent African Union [AU] launch of the 'Africa Malaria Elimination Campaign' is a big step forward," added Muleba.

During the third session of the AU conference of health ministers, held in South Africa from 9 to 13 April this year, delegates committed themselves to reducing malaria morbidity and mortality by up to 75 percent by 2015 through universal access to prevention and control interventions.