ReviewCurrent opinion in microbiology2022
The mystery of persistent, asymptomatic Plasmodium falciparum infections.
Review in Current opinion in microbiology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.
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
17 citing papers in PubMed, 32 citations in OpenAlex.
- Modelling the effect of long-lasting insecticidal nets on malaria transmission dynamics in Kebbi State, Nigeria.Infectious Disease Modelling · 2026Article
- From multiplicity of infection to force of infection in sparsely sampled high-transmissioneLife · 2026Article
- Mechanistic insights into subclinicaliScience · 2026Review
- Immune Modulation by Plasmodium yoelii: Insights From Lethal and Non-Lethal Strains.Parasite immunology · 2026Review
- Malaria antibody responses augment surveillance in low-transmission settings in the Upper River Region, the Gambia.Frontiers in epidemiology · 2026Article
- upsML: A high-accuracy machine learning classifier for predicting Plasmodium falciparum var gene upstream groups.PloS one · 2026Article
- Malaria vaccines: Current developments and immunological insights.New microbes and new infections · 2025Article
- Measuring changes ineLife · 2025Article
- Metagenomic complexity of high, seasonal transmission of Plasmodium spp. in asymptomatic carriers in Northern Sahelian Ghana.Communications medicine · 2025Article
- Impact of asymptomatic malaria infection on children's growth in rural Malawi.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Variable surface antigen expression, virulence, and persistent infection byMicrobiology and molecular biology reviews : MMBR · 2025Review
- Hyper-diverse antigenic variation and resilience to transmission-reducing intervention in falciparum malaria.Nature communications · 2024Article
- RNA polymerase III is involved in regulatingeLife · 2024Article
- Asymptomatic Low-Density Plasmodium falciparum Infections: Parasites Under the Host's Immune Radar?The Journal of infectious diseases · 2024Review
- Hyper-diverse antigenic variation and resilience to transmission-reducing intervention in falciparum malaria.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2024Article
- PfEMP1 and var genes - Still of key importance in Plasmodium falciparum malaria pathogenesis and immunity.Advances in parasitology · 2024Review
- Revisiting Koch's postulates: A tailored approach for clinical parasitology.Tropical parasitologyArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Plasmodium falciparum causes millions of malaria infections and hundreds of thousands of deaths annually. These parasites avoid the adaptive immune response by systematically cycling through a limited repertoire of variant surface antigens after which the number of circulating parasites drops to extremely low levels, coinciding with a loss of symptoms and eventual clearance of the infection. However, in regions with extended dry seasons or in individuals who no longer reside in endemic areas, asymptomatic infections have been observed to persist for many months or years, potentially serving as reservoirs for transmission. Recent work suggests the possibility that parasites can assume a state in which no variant surface antigens are expressed, thus rendering them virtually invisible to the immune system and enabling them to persist at low levels indefinitely.
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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.