Malaria infection during pregnancy is an important driver of maternal and neonatal health especially among HIV-infected women. In Africa, at least one million pregnancies are co-infected with malaria and HIV annually. The interaction between the two infections is particularly deleterious in pregnancy, leading to increased risk of malaria and HIV viral load, which may increase the frequency of mother to child transmission of HIV (MTCT-HIV). Intermittent preventive treatment in pregnancy (IPTp) with sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) is recommended for malaria prevention in HIV-uninfected women but it is contraindicated in those HIV-infected on cotrimoxazole prophylaxis (CTXp) due to potential adverse effects.

A recent trial showed that an effective antimalarial added to CTXp and long-lasting insecticide treated nets (LLITNs) in HIV-infected pregnant women improves malaria prevention and maternal health. However, the antimalarial used –mefloquine- was not well tolerated and it was associated with an increase in HIV viral load at delivery and a two-fold increased risk of MTCT-HIV. These findings highlight the need to find alternative drugs with better tolerability and safety profile to prevent malaria in this vulnerable group and to further study the pharmacological interactions between antimalarials and antiretrovirals (ARVs).