Title
Insights into Plasmodium vivax Asymptomatic Malaria Infections and Direct Skin-Feeding Assays to Assess Onward Malaria Transmission in the Amazon
Date Issued
13 July 2022
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia
Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia
Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia
Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia
Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia
Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia
Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia
Publisher(s)
American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
Abstract
Understanding the reservoir and infectivity of Plasmodium gametocytes to vector mosquitoes is crucial to align strategies aimed at malaria transmission elimination. Yet, experimental information is scarce regarding the infectivity of Plasmodium vivax for mosquitoes in diverse epidemiological settings where the proportion of asymptomatically infected individuals varies at a microgeographic scale. We measured the transmissibility of clinical and subclinical P. vivax malaria parasite carriers to the major mosquito vector in the Amazon Basin, Nyssorhynchus darlingi (formerly Anopheles). A total of 105 participants with natural P. vivax malaria infection were recruited from a cohort study in Loreto Department, Peruvian Amazon. Four of 18 asymptomatic individuals with P. vivax positivity by blood smear infected colony-grown Ny. darlingi (22%), with 2.6% (19 of 728) mosquitoes infected. In contrast, 77% (44/57) of symptomatic participants were infectious to mosquitoes with 51% (890 of 1,753) mosquitoes infected. Infection intensity was greater in symptomatic infections (mean, 17.8 oocysts/mosquito) compared with asymptomatic infections (mean, 0.28 oocysts/mosquito), attributed to parasitemia/gametocytemia level. Paired experiments (N = 27) using direct skin-feeding assays and direct membrane mosquito-feeding assays showed that infectivity to mosquitoes was similar for both methods. Longitudinal studies with longer follow-up of symptomatic and asymptomatic parasite infections are needed to determine the natural variations of disease transmissibility.
Start page
154
End page
161
Volume
107
Issue
1
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Epidemiología Parasitología Enfermedades infecciosas
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85135377329
PubMed ID
Source
The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene
ISSN of the container
14761645
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus