People infected with Ebola virus were 20 percent more likely to survive if they were co-infected with malaria-causing Plasmodium parasites, according to data collected at an Ebola diagnostic laboratory in Liberia in 2014-15. Moreover, greater numbers of Plasmodium parasites correlated with increased rates of Ebola survival, according to a dozen collaborating research groups in the new study, published in Clinical Infectious Diseases. The survival difference was evident even after controlling for Ebola viral load and age. Scientists from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), led the project.
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