Aflatoxins – poisons produced by fungi that grow on moldy peanuts and corn – may be worsening Africa’s AIDS epidemic by helping suppress the immune systems of newly infected people, a new study has found.
The study, by researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and published recently in the World Mycotoxin Journal, measured blood levels of aflatoxins and H.I.V. in 314 Ghanaians who had never taken antiviral drugs.
The more aflatoxins they had, the more likely they were to have high blood levels of H.I.V. – even those with higher levels of CD4 blood cells, meaning they had not been infected long and were not yet eligible for triple-therapy cocktails under the latest World Health Organization guidelines.
Donald G. McNeil Jr.
The New York Times
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