https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-11/b-ya110820.php
News Release 18-Nov-2020
American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene
Malaria researchers, working in an area of Uganda where infections have been dropping dramatically, discovered a small number of infected but asymptomatic school-age children can serve as stealth "super spreaders" responsible for the vast majority of malaria parasites still circulating in local mosquitoes. The new findings, reported today at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH), reveal a hidden reservoir that's a barrier to long-term efforts to eliminate malaria and an immediate threat for disease resurgence if control measures like bednets and indoor spraying falter.
"We now have the first direct evidence that even in places under very intensive malaria control, a small number of asymptomatic super spreaders can quietly sustain transmission--and finding and treating them could prove very challenging," said lead author Chiara Andolina, MSc, a PhD student and malaria expert at Radboud University Medical Center in The Netherlands. The study was conducted as part of the Program for Resistance, Immunology, Surveillance, and Modeling of Malaria (PRISM) project in Uganda.
"The existence of asymptomatic malaria infections is well known," she said, "but it was surprising to see just how much they can contribute to infecting mosquitoes."
•••••
No comments:
Post a Comment