Evidence map›Paper›PMID 30926893›Full record

ArticleNature communications2019

The temporal dynamics and infectiousness of subpatent Plasmodium falciparum infections in relation to parasite density.

Hannah C Slater, Amanda Ross, Ingrid Felger, Natalie E Hofmann, Leanne Robinson, Jackie Cook, Bronner P Gonçalves, Anders Björkman, Andre Lin Ouedraogo, Ulrika Morris and 31 more

Erratum issuedAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Nature communications, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 114 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
114citing papers in PubMed, 3 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

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.

2 · The registry

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.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

114 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Pooled it
  3. Global patterns of submicroscopicThe Lancet. Microbe · 2021
    Pooled it
  4. Trial
  5. Trial
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  9. Observational
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  12. Remoscope: a label-free imaging cytometer for malaria diagnostics.Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene · 2025
    Article
  13. Article
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  15. Article
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  18. [SubmicroscopicMedecine tropicale et sante internationale · 2025
    Article
  19. Article
  20. Article

54 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

41 authors.

Hannah C SlaterMRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis, Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Imperial College London, London, W2 1PG, UK. hslater@path.org.
Amanda RossDepartment of Epidemiology and Public Health, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel, 4002, Switzerland.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6027-5645
Ingrid FelgerUniversity of Basel, Basel, 4001, Switzerland.
Natalie E HofmannUniversity of Basel, Basel, 4001, Switzerland.
Leanne RobinsonVector-borne Diseases Unit, Papua New Guinea Institute for Medical Research, Madang, Papua New Guinea.
Jackie CookMRC Tropical Epidemiology Group, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, WC1E 7HT, UK.
Bronner P GonçalvesDepartment of Immunology and Infection, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, WC1E 7HT, UK.
Anders BjörkmanMalaria Research, Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology, Karolinska Institutet, 171 77, Stockholm, Sweden.
Andre Lin OuedraogoDépartement de Sciences Biomédicales, Centre National de Recherche et de Formation sur le Paludisme, Ouagadougou, 01 BP 2208, Burkina Faso.
Ulrika MorrisMalaria Research, Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology, Karolinska Institutet, 171 77, Stockholm, Sweden.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4734-5754
Mwinyi MsellemDepartment of Training and Research, Mnazi Mmoja Hospital, Zanzibar, Tanzania.
Cristian KoepfliPopulation Health and Immunity Division, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, Melbourne, 3052, Victoria, Australia.
Ivo MuellerDivision of Population Health and Immunity, The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Parkville, 3052, VIC, Australia.
Fitsum TadesseRadboud Institute for Health Sciences, Radboud University Medical Centre, Nijmegen, 6525, The Netherlands.
Endalamaw GadisaArmauer Hansen Research Institute, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Smita DasDiagnostics Program, PATH, Seattle, Washington, 98121, United States of America.
Gonzalo DomingoDiagnostics Program, PATH, Seattle, Washington, 98121, United States of America.
Melissa KapuluCentre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health, Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX3 7FZ, UK.
Janet MidegaCentre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health, Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX3 7FZ, UK.
Seth Owusu-AgyeiInstitute of Health, University of Health and Allied Sciences, Hohoe, PMB 31, Ghana.
Cécile NabetSorbonne Université, INSERM, Institut Pierre-Louis d'Epidémiologie et de Santé Publique, AP- HP, Groupe Hospitalier Pitié-Salpêtrière, Service de Parasitologie-Mycologie, Paris, 75646, France.
Renaud PiarrouxSorbonne Université, INSERM, Institut Pierre-Louis d'Epidémiologie et de Santé Publique, AP- HP, Groupe Hospitalier Pitié-Salpêtrière, Service de Parasitologie-Mycologie, Paris, 75646, France.
Ogobara DoumboMalaria Research and Training Centre, Parasitic Diseases Epidemiology Department, UMI 3189, University of Sciences, Technique and Technology, Bamako, Mali.
Safiatou Niare DoumboMalaria Research and Training Centre, Parasitic Diseases Epidemiology Department, UMI 3189, University of Sciences, Technique and Technology, Bamako, Mali.
Kwadwo KoramNoguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana.
Naomi LucchiMalaria Branch, Division of Parasitic Diseases and Malaria, Centers for Global Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, 30030, GA, United States of America.
Venkatachalam UdhayakumarMalaria Branch, Division of Parasitic Diseases and Malaria, Centers for Global Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, 30030, GA, United States of America.
Jacklin MoshaNational Institute for Medical Research, Mwanza Medical Research Centre, Mwanza, Tanzania.
Alfred TionoDepartment of Biomedical Sciences, Centre National de Recherche et de Formation sur le Paludisme, Ouagadougou, 01 BP 2208, Burkina Faso.
Daniel ChandramohanDepartment of Disease Control, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London, WC1E 7HT, UK.
Roly GoslingMalaria Elimination Initiative, Global Health Group, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, 94158, CA, United States.
Felista MwingiraBiological Sciences Department, Dar es Salaam University College of Education, P. O. Box 2329, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
Robert SauerweinRadboud Institute for Health Sciences, Radboud University Medical Centre, Nijmegen, 6525, The Netherlands.
Richard PaulInstitut Pasteur de Dakar, Laboratoire d'Entomologie Médicale, Dakar, Senegal.
Eleanor M RileyDepartment of Immunology and Infection, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, WC1E 7HT, UK.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3447-3570
Nicholas J WhiteCentre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health, Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX3 7FZ, UK.
Francois NostenCentre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health, Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX3 7FZ, UK.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7951-0745
Mallika ImwongMahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit, Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Bangkok, 10400, Thailand.
Teun BousemaDepartment of Immunology and Infection, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, WC1E 7HT, UK.
Chris DrakeleyDepartment of Immunology and Infection, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, WC1E 7HT, UK.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4863-075X
Lucy C OkellMRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis, Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Imperial College London, London, W2 1PG, UK.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7202-6873

Funding

Medical Research Council MR/R010161/1Medical Research Council MR/R015600/1
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Malaria infections occurring below the limit of detection of standard diagnostics are common in all endemic settings. However, key questions remain surrounding their contribution to sustaining transmission and whether they need to be detected and targeted to achieve malaria elimination. In this study we analyse a range of malaria datasets to quantify the density, detectability, course of infection and infectiousness of subpatent infections. Asymptomatically infected individuals have lower parasite densities on average in low transmission settings compared to individuals in higher transmission settings. In cohort studies, subpatent infections are found to be predictive of future periods of patent infection and in membrane feeding studies, individuals infected with subpatent asexual parasite densities are found to be approximately a third as infectious to mosquitoes as individuals with patent (asexual parasite) infection. These results indicate that subpatent infections contribute to the infectious reservoir, may be long lasting, and require more sensitive diagnostics to detect them in lower transmission settings.

Indexed as

AnimalsGerm CellsHumansMalaria, FalciparumParasitemiaParasitesPlasmodium falciparumProbabilityTime Factors

Identifiers

PMID30926893
PMCPMC6440965

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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.