Worms worsen HIV
Treating intestinal worm infestations among HIV positive people in developing countries may slow progression to Aids. A team of Israeli scientists treated recently-immigrant Ethiopian Jews with two cheap anti-parasitic drugs. Six months after treatment, there was a tenfold difference in HIV viral load between patients whose worms were eliminated and those in whom infestations persisted or reappeared. Treating these common infestations - which affected 55 per cent of the trial group - would be cheap and help to prolong the lives of people with Aids in poor countries.