Plasmodium vivax malaria: infections may be largely underestimated in sub-Saharan Africa

Researchers from the Institut de Parasitologie et de Pathologie Tropicale at the University of Strasbourg and the Laboratoire de Parasitologie et de Mycologie Médicale at the Strasbourg University Hospital, in collaboration with King's College London, UK, the Institut Pasteur (Paris, France), the Institut Pasteur de Madagascar and the University of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, have revealed how Plasmodium vivax, one of the main causes of malaria, is capable of infecting people in Africa. This is an important discovery, given that until now these populations were considered to be naturally protected due to the absence of the Duffy protein on the surface of their red blood cells. These results suggest that a large number of individuals in sub-Saharan Africa could be silent carriers of Plasmodium vivax and, consequently, that malaria could be largely underestimated in Africa. The results of this research were published in Cell Host & Microbe.

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