Parasites, pregnancy, prolactin and pandemics?

Abstract

In examining the co-infection of HIV and maternal malaria, Ned et al. [1] cited the research of Bouyou-Akotet et al. [2] into pregnancy-related hormones. In its report of findings, the Gabonese and Tubingen group had resurrected the ‘cortisol hypothesis’ of McGregor [3] and Vluegels [4] to explain the observation of elevated levels of cortisol (and depressed levels of prolactin) in cord blood during labour in primi- and multiparous Gabonesse women infected by Plasmodium falciparum. These findings were discussed and contested [5], and it was explained that labour was not an appropriate time to assay for prolactin levels because they naturally fall 24 h preceding the onset of parturition (Bouyou-Akotet et al.