WASHINGTON (Reuters) - People infected with parasitic worms may be much more
susceptible to the AIDS virus, according to a study published on Tuesday
that may help explain why HIV has hit sub-Saharan Africa particularly hard.

The study involving monkeys demonstrated how a type of parasitic worm that
causes schistosomiasis, which affects 200 million people globally, may make
HIV infection more likely.

Much lower amounts of the AIDS virus -- 17 times lower -- were needed to
cause infection in monkeys who had the parasitic worms than in the
parasite-free monkeys, the researchers said.

"The presence of the worm is like adding fuel to the fire -- it creates more
fertile ground for the virus to take hold," Dr. Ruth Ruprecht of Harvard
Medical School, one of the researchers, said in a telephone interview.

Evan Secor of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, another
of the researchers, said the findings likely apply to people as well. This
may confirm suspicions that parasitic worm infections like those common in
parts of sub-Saharan Africa with unsanitary water supplies make people more
vulnerable to HIV, Secor said.

"Sub-Saharan Africa has only like 10 percent of the world's population but
almost two-thirds of the world's HIV/AIDS," Secor said in a telephone
interview.

"So there's an apparent disproportionate amount of HIV/AIDS there, and it's
very severe. So the hypothesis is that one of the things that may contribute
to the more intense nature of HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa is the presence
of these parasitic worms," Secor added.

Schistosomiasis, seen primarily in developing countries, is caused by tiny
flatworms that live in snail-infested freshwater like rivers and lakes.

When people wade, swim or bathe in contaminated water, worms bore through
the skin and travel in the blood, causing anemia, diarrhea, internal
bleeding, organ damage and death.

Secor said the parasitic worm infection may undercut the immune system's
ability to fight off HIV infection and may make it easier for HIV to get
into white blood cells.

HIV MORE LIKELY TO SPREAD

The researchers conducted experiments with rhesus monkeys, some of which had
an acute infection with the Schistosoma mansoni parasitic worm and some of
which were parasite-free, normal and healthy.

They then exposed the monkeys to a hybrid AIDS virus -- a genetically
engineered version that combined elements of the monkey AIDS virus and the
human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS in people.

Ruprecht said having parasitic worms not only made a monkey more susceptible
to AIDS virus infection, but once infected they had far higher
concentrations of the virus in their bloodstream, meaning they became more
likely to infect others.

"If the virus is extremely high in the blood, then the chances are that the
virus is also going to be high in the genital fluids. And therefore such a
host would be more likely to be spreading the infection to others," Ruprecht
said.

Ruprecht said the findings emphasized the need for public health measures to
control parasitic worm infections in regions where HIV infection is common.
A drug called praziquantel is available to treat schistosomiasis.

The study, published in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Neglected
Tropical Diseases, can be read here

(Editing by Eric Beech)
http://www.reuters.com/article/healt...andCha nnel=0

On Sat, 2 Aug 2008 10:13:26 -0500, "Death" <Death@yourdoor.net> wrote:

Yea, I did the worm thing at the end of last year, see Usenet article
<33.1198093459.20071219@hiv-poz.co.uk> or Google Groups
<http://groups.google.com/group/misc.health.aids/msg/7189e7fc804a11a2>.

....of course...

Niggers don't have much luck, do they?

It seems like only a couple of weeks ago we were told they've all got
HIVAIDS because they're black. And now they have worm to make things
even worse.

Oh, look, it was only a couple of weeks ago, see Usenet article
<531.1216251859.20080716@hiv-poz.co.uk> or Google Groups
<http://groups.google.com/group/misc.health.aids/msg/02a713a5d3706906>.

Presumably niggers elsewhere in the world, such as the US and UK, all
have worms too. This would explain how they've managed to wrestle the
HIVAIDS crown away from the faggot community.
--
<http://www.hiv-poz.co.uk/>
4,950 days and counting...