15.04.2025

Eliminating worm infections as a key strategy for HIV/AIDS prevention

Researchers from the Institute of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine at the LMU University Hospital Munich, the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR) – Mbeya Medical Research Center (MMRC) and the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF), together with colleagues from Bonn, have discovered a risk factor for HIV infection that has received little attention to date. In an earlier cohort study conducted in Tanzania, they had demonstrated for the first time that infection with the worm Wuchereria bancrofti increases the risk of contracting HIV. This link has now been further investigated in the context of a national program in Tanzania to eliminate W. bancrofti—the causative agent of lymphatic filariasis. The follow-up study confirms that the containment of this worm infection leads to a reduction in new HIV infections. The results of the RHINO study have now been published in the journal The Lancet HIV.

Co-author of the study, Prof. Achim Hörauf, Director of the Institute of Medical Microbiology, Immunology and Parasitology at the University Hospital Bonn, adds: "Our findings open up new possibilities for the prevention of HIV in affected regions. The therapy to combat lymphatic filariasis is still not optimal. We are therefore continuing to research this topic and hope to bring at least a few of the drugs developed also with DZIF funding, to registration."

Read full article on the LMU University Hospital Munich website

Source:  LMU University Hospital Munich

Publication
Inge Kroidl et al.: Impact of quasi-elimination of Wuchereria bancrofti on HIV incidence in southwest Tanzania: a 12-year prospective cohort study. The Lancet HIV 2025, https://doi.org/10.1016/S2352-3018(25)00001-3