HIV-1 infection in patients referred for malaria blood smears at government health clinics in Uganda

Abstract

Background: HIV is associated with an increased incidence of malaria in adult African populations. In children, the relationship between HIV and malaria is less clear. We investigated the relationship between malaria and HIV-1 infection among adults and children referred for malaria blood smears at government health clinics in Uganda.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study in which 1000 consecutive patients referred for malaria blood smears over the course of 1 to 2 months at each of 7 government clinics (N = 7000) were tested for HIV-1 from dried blood spots using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) screening and nucleic acid-based confirmatory testing. Risk factors for HIV-1 infection were identified using multivariate logistic regression.

Results: Among 4467 children aged 16 years or younger, 77 (1.7%) were HIV-1 infected. Of 2533 adults, 270 (10.7%) were HIV-1 infected. In children, having a negative malaria blood smear was associated with higher odds of HIV-1 infection (odds ratio [OR] = 1.90, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.18 to 3.06) after controlling for age and gender. In adults, having a positive malaria blood smear was moderately associated with higher odds of HIV-1 infection (OR = 1.41, 95% CI: 1.01 to 1.97) after controlling for age and gender.

Conclusions: In Ugandans evaluated for suspected malaria, associations between malaria smear results and HIV infection differed between children and adults. Although further operations research is needed, our results suggest that counseling and testing for HIV may be of particular importance in children suspected of malaria but with negative malaria smears and in adults with positive malaria smears.