Uncovering silent malaria reservoirs in Southern Ethiopia: community-based molecular detection of asymptomatic and sub-microscopic infections and their implications for diagnosis and control
Cross-sectional study uncovers undetected malaria infections in Southern Ethiopia, suggesting improved diagnostic approaches.
Key Points
The study investigates asymptomatic and sub-microscopic Plasmodium infections, focusing on their undetected presence and impact on malaria transmission.
Conducted a cross-sectional community-based study involving 525 participants.
Utilized microscopy, rapid diagnostic tests, and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) for malaria detection.
Analyzed data for prevalence and demographic factors using SPSS software.
qPCR detected 31.2% asymptomatic and 16.6% sub-microscopic infections, significantly higher than microscopy and RDTs.
Detected sub-microscopic infections included 7.9% P. vivax and 7.2% P. falciparum.
Higher prevalence of infections was found among participants aged 15-24 years and females.