Malaria and Cervical Cancer Risk from HPV in Kampala, Uganda

Abstract

When it was clear that the Burkitt’s-Lymphoma, prototype for many African tumours, was attributable to an oncogenic virus, the EBV, and to Falciparum Malaria (FM), [1-5] an extension of these findings was mandatory. Many years back in an epidemiological study assessing human papilloma viruses we postulated therefore that cosmopolitan malaria is a causal factor in cancer of the uterine cervix (CC) [6]. Supported generously by Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, the ugandan counterpart in our study group worked extensively on HIV and, as others, found no association [7]. Unexpectedly, sera were left over from a large number of women, more than enough to investigate in a further case-control design regarding malaria, endemic in Kampala, the capital city of Uganda.