The plasticity of Plasmodium falciparum gametocytaemia in relation to age in Burkina Faso.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Malaria transmission depends on the presence of gametocytes in the peripheral blood. In this study, the age-dependency of gametocytaemia was examined by microscopy and molecular tools.

Methods

A total of 5,383 blood samples from individuals of all ages were collected over six cross sectional surveys in Burkina Faso. One cross-sectional study used quantitative nucleic acid sequence based amplification (QT-NASBA) for parasite quantification (n = 412). The proportion of infections with concurrent gametocytaemia and median proportion of gametocytes among all parasites were calculated.

Results

Asexual parasite prevalence and gametocyte prevalence decreased with age. Gametocytes made up 1.8% of the total parasite population detected by microscopy in the youngest

SUBMITTER: Ouedraogo AL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3020678 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature