ArticleScience advances2015
Co-infections determine patterns of mortality in a population exposed to parasite infection.
Article in Science advances, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 43 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
43 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 79 citations in OpenAlex.
- Tick-Borne Diseases in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review of Pathogens, Research Focus, and Implications for Public Health.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Pooled it
- Malaria and Helminthic Co-Infection during Pregnancy in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Pooled it
- The human immunome in the post-schistosomiasis mass drug administration era.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2026Review
- Molecular characterisation of tick-borne pathogens in cattle in kenya: insights from blood, ticks, and skin swab analyses.BMC veterinary research · 2025Article
- Improve animal health to reduce livestock emissions: quantifying an open goal.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Coinfection frequency in water flea populations is a mere reflection of parasite diversity.Communications biology · 2024Article
- Detection of Tick-Borne Pathogen Coinfections and Coexposures to Foot-and-Mouth Disease, Brucellosis, and Q Fever in Selected Wildlife From Kruger National Park, South Africa, and Etosha National Park, Namibia.Transboundary and emerging diseases · 2024Article
- Development of a novel Haemabiome tool for the high-throughput analysis of haemopathogen species co-infections in African livestock.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2024Article
- Pathogenicity and virulence of African trypanosomes: From laboratory models to clinically relevant hosts.Virulence · 2023Review
- Development and evaluation of specific polymerase chain reaction assays for detecting Theileria equi genotypes.Parasites & vectors · 2023Article
- Modelling morbidity for neglected tropical diseases: the long and winding road from cumulative exposure to long-term pathology.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023Review
- Dynamics of Infections in Cattle andPathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Temporal Dynamics ofMicroorganisms · 2023Article
- Inflammation and Microbiota Regulation Potentiate Pneumonia Therapy by Biomimetic Bacteria and Macrophage Membrane Nanosystem.Research (Washington, D.C.) · 2023Article
- Molecular Investigation of Tick-Borne Haemoparasites Isolated from Indigenous Zebu Cattle in the Tanga Region, Tanzania.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2022Article
- Molecular prevalence and risk factors associated with tick-borne pathogens in cattle in western Kenya.BMC veterinary research · 2021Article
- A comparative study of single Theileria lestoquardi and mixed infections with Theileria ovis.Parasites & vectors · 2021Article
- Tick-borne pathogens, including Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever virus, at livestock markets and slaughterhouses in western Kenya.Transboundary and emerging diseases · 2021Article
- Mixed infections alter transmission potential in a fungal plant pathogen.Environmental microbiology · 2021Article
- Natural resistance to worms exacerbates bovine tuberculosis severity independently of worm coinfection.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
23 authors at 8 institutions in 5 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Many individual hosts are infected with multiple parasite species, and this may increase or decrease the pathogenicity of the infections. This phenomenon is termed heterologous reactivity and is potentially an important determinant of both patterns of morbidity and mortality and of the impact of disease control measures at the population level. Using infections with Theileria parva (a tick-borne protozoan, related to Plasmodium) in indigenous African cattle [where it causes East Coast fever (ECF)] as a model system, we obtain the first quantitative estimate of the effects of heterologous reactivity for any parasitic disease. In individual calves, concurrent co-infection with less pathogenic species of Theileria resulted in an 89% reduction in mortality associated with T. parva infection. Across our study population, this corresponds to a net reduction in mortality due to ECF of greater than 40%. Using a mathematical model, we demonstrate that this degree of heterologous protection provides a unifying explanation for apparently disparate epidemiological patterns: variable disease-induced mortality rates, age-mortality profiles, weak correlations between the incidence of infection and disease (known as endemic stability), and poor efficacy of interventions that reduce exposure to multiple parasite species. These findings can be generalized to many other infectious diseases, including human malaria, and illustrate how co-infections can play a key role in determining population-level patterns of morbidity and mortality due to parasite infections.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.