Longitudinal and Cross-sectional Analyses of Asymptomatic HIV-1/Malaria Co-infection in Kisumu County, Kenya

Individuals infected with HIV-1 experience more frequent and more severe episodes of malaria and are likely to harbor asymptomatic parasitemia, thus potentially making them more efficient reservoirs of malaria. Two studies (cross-sectional and longitudinal) were designed in sequence between 2015–2018 and 2018–2020, respectively, to test the hypothesis that HIV-1 infected individuals have higher prevalence of asymptomatic parasitemia and gametocytemia than the HIV-1 negatives. This article describes the overall design of the two studies, encompassing data for the longitudinal study and additional data to the previously published baseline data for the cross-sectional study. In the cross-sectional study, HIV-1 positive participants were significantly older, more likely to be male, and more likely to have parasitemia relative to HIV-1 negatives (P < 0.01). In the longitudinal study, 300 participants were followed for 6 months. Of these, 102 were HIV-1 negative, 106 were newly diagnosed HIV-1 positive, and 92 were HIV-1 positive and on antiretroviral therapy, including antifolates, at enrollment. Overall parasitemia positivity at enrollment was 17.3% (52/300). Of these, 44% (23/52) were HIV-1 negative, 52% (27/52) were newly diagnosed HIV-1 positives, and only 4% (2/52) were HIV-1 positive and on treatment. Parasitemia for those on stable antiretroviral therapy was significantly lower (hazard ratio: 0.51, P < 0.001), compared with the HIV-1-negatives. On follow-up, there was a significant decline in parasitemia prevalence (hazard ratio: 0.74, P < 0.001) among the HIV patients newly initiated on antiretroviral therapy including trimethoprim-sulfamethoxasole. These data highlight the impact of HIV-1 and HIV treatment on asymptomatic parasitemia over time.