MINI-REVIEW ON MALARIA AND HUMAN IMMUNODEFICIENCY VIRUS (HIV) IN SUB-SAHARA AFRICA

Abstract

HIV is the virus that causes HIV infection. AIDS is the most advanced stage of HIV infection. HIV is spread through contact with the blood, semen, pre-seminal fluid, rectal fluids, vaginal fluids, or breast milk of a person with HIV. In the United States, HIV is spread mainly by having anal or vaginal sex or sharing injection drug equipment, such as needles, with a person who has HIV. Meanwhile, Malaria is a life-threatening mosquito-borne blood disease caused by a Plasmodium parasite that infects a type of mosquito which feeds on humans. Once an infected mosquito bites a human, parasites multiply in the host‟s liver before infecting and destroying their red blood cells. Malaria patients are usually very sick with symptoms such as high fevers, shaking chills, and flu-like illness. Globally, WHO estimated that 212 million clinical cases of malaria occurred, and 429,000 people died of malaria, most of them children in Africa. Since many countries with malaria are already among the poorer nations, the disease maintains a vicious cycle of disease and poverty.