Co-infection between malaria and HIV has major public health implications. The aims of this study were to assess the malaria prevalence and to identify predictors of positivity to malaria Test in HIV positive patients admitted to the health center São Lucas of Beira, Mozambique. A retrospective cross-sectional study was performed from January 2016 to December 2016. Overall, 701 adult HIV patients were enrolled, positivity to malaria test was found in 232 (33.0%). These patients were found to be more frequently unemployed (76.3%), aged under 40 (72.0%), with a HIV positive partner (22.4%) and with a CD4 cell count <200 (59.9%). The following variables were predictors of malaria: age under 40 (O.R. = 1.56; 95%CI: 1.22⁻2.08), being unemployed (O.R. = 1.74; 95%CI: 1.24⁻2.21), irregularity of cotrimoxazole prophylaxis's (O.R. = 1.42; 95%CI: 1.10⁻1.78), CD4 cell count <200 (O.R. = 2.01; 95%CI: 1.42⁻2.32) and tuberculosis comorbidity (O.R. = 1.58; 95%CI: 1.17⁻2.79). In conclusion, high malaria prevalence was found in HIV patients accessing the out-patients centre of São Lucas of Beira. Our findings allowed us to identify the profile of HIV patients needing more medical attention: young adults, unemployed, with a low CD4 cell count and irregularly accessing to ART and cotrimoxazole prophylaxis.
Keywords: HIV; HIV-malaria co-infection; Mozambique; cotrimoxazole prophylaxis; malaria predictors in developing countries; malaria prevalence.