Background: It is uncertain whether Plasmodium falciparum malaria is more frequent or more severe in children with perinatally acquired human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection and whether P. falciparum infection accelerates the progression of HIV-related disease.
Methods: We conducted a prospective, longitudinal cohort study in Kinshasa, Zaire. Two hundred sixty children 5 to 9 months of age who had been born to HIV-1-seropositive mothers and 327 children of the same age who had been born to seronegative mothers were monitored intensively for malaria over a 13-month period. All episodes of fever were evaluated with blood smears for malaria, and children found to be infected with P. falciparum were treated with a standard regimen of oral quinine.
Results: A total of 2899 fevers were evaluated, with 271 cases of malaria identified. No statistically significant differences were found in the incidence, severity, or response to therapy of malaria among four well-defined groups of children: those with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), those who were HIV-1-seropositive throughout the study, those who were born to HIV-1-seropositive mothers but reverted to seronegative, and those who were seronegative throughout the study. During the 13-month period the incidence of malaria in the 36 children with HIV infection in whom AIDS developed was lower, although not significantly so, than in the 37 in whom AIDS did not.
Conclusions: In this study malaria was not more frequent or more severe in children with progressive HIV-1 infection and malaria did not appear to accelerate the rate of progression of HIV-1 disease.