LOW MALARIA PARASITAEMIA AMONG HIV PATIENTS IN YAOUNDE, CAMEROON - Njunda Anna Longdoh - Bog

Due to the overlapping distribution of malaria and HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa, Cameroon has seen malaria as one of the most important infectious disease in the country. Infectious bites are common all year round which places the entire population at risk of malaria infection. HIV-infected patients constitute one of the major at-risk groups, with infection with malaria being expectedly more severe.We then investigated the prevalence of malaria parasiteamia in people living with HIV attending the Military hospital Yaounde. We observed a low prevalence of 7%. This therefore undermines the importance of mapping out the distribution of the coinfection in the country as this will provide information which can help to put the situation under control.Despite the depletion of the human immune system caused by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, in line with our findings and observations, the prevalence of malaria is low in HIV positive individuals. The prevalence was not a subject of sex and age. This is an indication that all HIV patients are equally at risk of infection with malaria and preventive measures to control malaria infection in this group are a priority.