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The epidemiology of Plasmodium vivax among adults in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Source :
- Nature Communications, Vol 12, Iss 1, Pp 1-10 (2021), Nature Communications
- Publication Year :
- 2021
- Publisher :
- Nature Portfolio, 2021.
-
Abstract
- Reports of P. vivax infections among Duffy-negative hosts have accumulated throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Despite this growing body of evidence, no nationally representative epidemiological surveys of P. vivax in sub-Saharan Africa have been performed. To overcome this gap in knowledge, we screened over 17,000 adults in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) for P. vivax using samples from the 2013-2014 Demographic Health Survey. Overall, we found a 2.97% (95% CI: 2.28%, 3.65%) prevalence of P. vivax infections across the DRC. Infections were associated with few risk-factors and demonstrated a relatively flat distribution of prevalence across space with focal regions of relatively higher prevalence in the north and northeast. Mitochondrial genomes suggested that DRC P. vivax were distinct from circulating non-human ape strains and an ancestral European P. vivax strain, and instead may be part of a separate contemporary clade. Our findings suggest P. vivax is diffusely spread across the DRC at a low prevalence, which may be associated with long-term carriage of low parasitemia, frequent relapses, or a general pool of infections with limited forward propagation.<br />Plasmodium vivax generally accounts for a low proportion of malaria cases in Africa, but population-level data on the distribution of infections is limited. Here, the authors use data from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and show that the prevalence is low (~3%) and diffusely spread.
- Subjects :
- 0301 basic medicine
Adult
Male
medicine.medical_specialty
Adolescent
Epidemiology
Science
030231 tropical medicine
Plasmodium vivax
General Physics and Astronomy
Parasitemia
General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
Article
03 medical and health sciences
Young Adult
0302 clinical medicine
Risk Factors
parasitic diseases
medicine
Malaria, Vivax
Prevalence
Humans
Mass Screening
Clade
Multidisciplinary
biology
Age Factors
General Chemistry
biology.organism_classification
medicine.disease
Malaria
Phylogenetics
030104 developmental biology
Carriage
Cross-Sectional Studies
Carrier State
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Forward propagation
Female
Demographic health survey
Demography
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 20411723
- Volume :
- 12
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Nature Communications
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....2b7a36109bef201292b4ddc34c06bc97