Defining the relationship between Plasmodium falciparum parasite rate and clinical disease: statistical models for disease burden estimation.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Clinical malaria has proven an elusive burden to enumerate. Many cases go undetected by routine disease recording systems. Epidemiologists have, therefore, frequently defaulted to actively measuring malaria in population cohorts through time. Measuring the clinical incidence of malaria longitudinally is labour-intensive and impossible to undertake universally. There is a need, therefore, to define a relationship between clinical incidence and the easier and more commonly measured index of infection prevalence: the "parasite rate". This relationship can help provide an informed basis to define malaria burdens in areas where health statistics are inadequate.

Methods

Formal literature searches were conducted for Plasmodium falciparum malaria incidence surveys underta

SUBMITTER: Patil AP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2746234 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature