ArticleMalaria journal2019
High cases of submicroscopic Plasmodium falciparum infections in a suburban population of Lagos, Nigeria.
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 21 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 36 citations in OpenAlex.
- Prevalence and associated risk factors of asymptomatic malaria in Nigeria: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Malaria journal · 2025Pooled it
- Evaluation of microscopy and first response™ malaria Ag PAN/Pf RDT compared to qPCR and hemoglobin levels in pregnant women at delivery in Busia County, Western Kenya.BMC infectious diseases · 2026Article
- A Pathogen Selection Tool for Surveillance of Acute Febrile Illness in Nigeria.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2025Article
- Reduction in Asymptomatic falciparum malaria infection amongst schoolchildren in three ecological zones of Ghana between 2017 and 2023.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Diagnosis On-Demand: Field Evaluation of Microfluidic Paper Device for the Detection of Asymptomatic Malaria.Analytical chemistry · 2025Article
- Variable surface antigen expression, virulence, and persistent infection byMicrobiology and molecular biology reviews : MMBR · 2025Review
- Plasmodium falciparum gametocyte burden in a Tanzanian heterogeneous transmission setting.Malaria journal · 2025Article
- Article
- Microscopic prevalence and risk factors of asymptomatic malaria in Gorgora, western Dembia, Northwest Ethiopia: exploring hidden threats during minor transmission season.Malaria journal · 2024Article
- Prevalence of Malaria Infection in Pregnant Women Attending Antenatal Clinics in Southern Senegal.The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene · 2024Article
- Relationship between Duffy Genotype/Phenotype and Prevalence ofTropical medicine and infectious disease · 2023Review
- Severity of Schistosoma haematobium co-infection with malaria in school-children is potentially modulated by host CD14 gene variants.BMC research notes · 2023Article
- Absence of Asymptomatic Malaria Reservoirs in an Area with a Previous History of Local Malaria Transmission: A Successful Experience in Line with the Malaria Elimination Program in Iran.Journal of arthropod-borne diseases · 2023Article
- Accuracy of diagnosis among clinical malaria patients: comparing microscopy, RDT and a highly sensitive quantitative PCR looking at the implications for submicroscopic infections.Malaria journal · 2023Article
- Performance Evaluation of Nested Polymerase Chain Reaction (Nested PCR), Light Microscopy, andPathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Feasibility of community at-home dried blood spot collection combined with pooled reverse transcription PCR as a viable and convenient method for malaria epidemiology studies.Malaria journal · 2022Article
- Dry season prevalence of Plasmodium falciparum in asymptomatic gambian children, with a comparative evaluation of diagnostic methods.Malaria journal · 2022Article
- Geographical and temporal variation in reduction of malaria infection among children under 5 years of age throughout Nigeria.BMJ global health · 2021Article
- Submicroscopic malaria infection is not associated with fever in cross-sectional studies in Malawi.Malaria journal · 2020Article
- Haptoglobin genotypes and malaria comorbidity in breast cancer and healthy Nigerian women.Annals of African medicineArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundAsymptomatic malaria parasites are significant sources of infections for onward malaria transmission. Conventional tools for malaria diagnosis such as microscopy and rapid diagnostic test kits (RDT) have relatively low sensitivity, hence the need for alternative tools for active screening of such low-density infections.
methodsThis study tested var acidic terminal sequence-based (varATS) quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) for screening asymptomatic Plasmodium falciparum infections among dwellers of a sub-urban community in Lagos, Nigeria. Clinically healthy participants were screened for malaria using microscopy, RDT and varATS qPCR techniques. Participants were stratified into three age groups: 1-5, 6-14 and > 14 years old.
resultsOf the 316 participants screened for asymptomatic malaria infection, 78 (24.68%) were positive by microscopy, 99 (31.33%) were positive by RDT and 112 (35.44%) by varATS qPCR. Participants aged 6-14 years had the highest prevalence of asymptomatic malaria, with geometric means of ~ 116 parasites/µL and ~ 6689 parasites/µL as detected by microscopy and varATS, respectively.
conclusionThis study has revealed high prevalence of asymptomatic malaria in the study population, with varATS detecting additional sub-microscopic infections. The highest concentration of asymptomatic malaria was observed among school-age children between 6 and 14 years old. A large-scale screening to identify other potential hotspots of asymptomatic parasites in the country is recommended.
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