ArticleMalaria journal2019
Prevalence of submicroscopic malaria infection in immigrants living in Spain.
Article in Malaria journal, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled 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.
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.
Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Imported malaria: a silent and forgotten threat in malaria free zones?Malaria journal · 2025Pooled it
- Misidentification of Plasmodium ovale as Plasmodium vivax malaria by a microscopic method: a meta-analysis of confirmed P. ovale cases.Scientific reports · 2020Pooled it
- Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP) Assessment for Malaria Diagnosis in Equatorial Guinea.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Automated microscopy for malaria diagnosis in a reference laboratory in nonendemic settings.Parasites & vectors · 2026Article
- Hidden burden: submicroscopic Plasmodium spp. infections in indigenous populations of the Peruvian Amazon.Malaria journal · 2025Article
- Imported malaria in a non-endemic country: sixteen years of cases in a hospital in the South of Madrid, Spain.European journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases : official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology · 2024Article
- Locally acquired malaria: a retrospective analysis of long-term surveillance data, European France, 1995 to 2022.Euro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin · 2024Article
- Molecular detection of sub-microscopic infections and Plasmodium falciparum histidine-rich protein-2 and 3 gene deletions in pre-elimination settings of South Africa.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Screening blood donors for malaria, can we increase the number of eligible donors? An observational retrospective study.Malaria journal · 2024Observational
- Malaria diagnosis using a combined system of a simple and fast extraction method with a lyophilised Dual-LAMP assay in a non-endemic setting.Pathogens and global health · 2024Article
- High prevalence of malaria in a non-endemic setting among febrile episodes in travellers and migrants coming from endemic areas: a retrospective analysis of a 2013-2018 cohort.Malaria journal · 2021Article
- Characterization of an outbreak of malaria in a non-endemic zone on the coastal region of Ecuador.Biomedica : revista del Instituto Nacional de Salud · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
25 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe importance of submicroscopic malaria infections in high-transmission areas could contribute to maintain the parasite cycle. Regarding non-endemic areas, its importance remains barely understood because parasitaemia in these afebrile patients is usually below the detection limits for microscopy, hence molecular techniques are often needed for its diagnosis. In addition to this, the lack of standardized protocols for the screening of submicroscopic malaria in immigrants from endemic areas may underestimate the infection with Plasmodium spp. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of submicroscopic malaria in afebrile immigrants living in a non-endemic area.
methodsA prospective, observational, multicentre study was conducted. Afebrile immigrants were included, microscopic observation of Giemsa-stained thin and thick blood smears, and two different molecular techniques detecting Plasmodium spp. were performed. Patients with submicroscopic malaria were defined as patients with negative blood smears and detection of DNA of Plasmodium spp. with one or both molecular techniques. Demographic, clinical, analytical and microbiological features were recorded and univariate analysis by subgroups was carried out with STATA v15.
resultsA total of 244 afebrile immigrants were included in the study. Of them, 14 had a submicroscopic malaria infection, yielding a prevalence of 5.7% (95% confidence interval 3.45-9.40). In 71.4% of the positive PCR/negative microscopy cases, Plasmodium falciparum alone was the main detected species (10 out of the 14 patients) and in 4 cases (28.6%) Plasmodium vivax or Plasmodium ovale were detected. One patient had a mixed infection including three different species.
conclusionsThe prevalence of submicroscopic malaria in afebrile immigrants was similar to that previously described in Spain. Plasmodium vivax and P. ovale were detected in almost a third of the submicroscopic infections. Screening protocols for afebrile immigrants with molecular techniques could be useful for a proper management of these patients.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.