Immunity to malaria is hard won, and yet it is imperfect. In areas of high malaria transmission, most symptomatic malaria and nearly all severe malaria and malaria deaths are in young children. This is the pattern in much of the malaria-endemic areas of West Africa, which bear the brunt of global malaria morbidity and mortality. Across the Sahel transmission of malaria is intense during the 3–4...

During the last decade much progress has been made in reducing malaria transmission in Macha, Southern Province, Zambia. Introduction of artemisinin combination therapies as well as mass screenings of asymptomatic carriers is believed to have contributed the most. When an endemic malaria situation is moving towards a non-endemic situation the resident population loses acquired immunity and ther...

NSW has a putative malaria vector in Anopheles annulipes, and increased numbers of immigrants from malaria endemic countries who may be infective to mosquitoes but asymptomatic. We examine the factors known to influence malaria transmission and conclude that local transmission is possible but unlikely. The public health implications are that there should be systematic screening of immigrants fr...

A parasitological, clinical, serological and molecular cross-sectional study carried out in a highly endemic malaria area of Rio Negro in the Amazon State, Brazil, revealed a high prevalence of asymptomatic Plasmodium vivax infection. A total of 109 persons from 25 families were studied in five villages. Ninety-nine inhabitants (90.8%) had at least one previous episode of malaria. Serology show...

Cross sectional studies on malaria prevalence was performed in 2001, 2002, and 2004 in Vila Candelária, an urban riverside area of Porto Velho, Rondônia, in the Brazilian Western Amazon, followed by longitudinal surveys on malaria incidence. Vila Candelária is a working class district, provided with electricity, water supply, and basic sanitation. Previous preliminary surveys indicated high mal...

The mechanisms underlying the heterogeneity of clinical malaria remain largely unknown. We hypothesized that differential gene expression contributes to phenotypic variation of parasites which results in a specific interaction with the host, leading to different clinical features of malaria. In this study, we analyzed the transcriptomes of isolates obtained from asymptomatic carriers and patien...

In Africa, control programs that target primarily Plasmodium falciparum are inadequate for eliminating malaria. To learn more about prevalence and genetic variability of P. malariae in Africa, we examined blood samples from 663 asymptomatic and 245 symptomatic persons from western Kenya during June-August of 2014 and 2015. P. malariae accounted for 5.3% (35/663) of asymptomatic infections and 3...

Plasmodium falciparum erythrocyte membrane protein 1 (PfEMP1) is a major pathogenicity factor in falciparum malaria that mediates cytoadherence. PfEMP1 is encoded by approximately 60 var genes per haploid genome. Most var genes are grouped into 3 subgroups: A, B, and C. Evidence is emerging that the specific expression of these subgroups has clinical significance. Using field samples from child...

BACKGROUND Asymptomatic malaria infection in refugees is both a threat to the lives of the individuals and the public in the host country. Although South Africa has been experiencing an unprecedented influx of refugees since 1994, data on malaria infection among refugees is lacking. Such information is critical since South Africa is among the countries that have planned to eliminate malaria. Th...

With malaria elimination back on the international agenda, programs face the challenge of targeting all Plasmodium infections, not only symptomatic cases. As asymptomatic individuals are unlikely to seek treatment, they are missed by passive surveillance while remaining infectious to mosquitoes, thus acting as silent reservoirs of transmission. To estimate the risk of asymptomatic infections in...