Tyler Rapp, Kano Amagai, Cyrus Sinai, Christopher Basham, Mwajabu Loya, Sifa Ngasala, Hamza Said, Meredith S Muller, Srijana B Chhetri, Guozheng Yang, Ruthly François, Melic Odas, Derrick Mathias, Jonathan J Juliano, Feng-Chang Lin, Billy Ngasala, Jessica T Lin
BACKGROUND: Asymptomatic malaria may be patent (visible by microscopy) and detectable by rapid malaria diagnostic tests (RDTs), or it may be submicroscopic and only detectable by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). METHODS: To characterize the submicroscopic reservoir in an area of declining malaria transmission, asymptomatic persons >5 years of age in Bagamoyo District, Tanzania, were screened using RDT, microscopy, and PCR. We investigated the size of the submicroscopic reservoir across villages, determined factors associated with submicroscopic parasitemia, and assessed the natural history of submicroscopic malaria over four weeks...
September 10, 2023: medRxiv