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Age and seasonal variation in the transition rates and detectability of Plasmodium falciparum malaria

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 September 2005

W. SAMA ,
S. OWUSU-AGYEI ,
I. FELGER ,
K. DIETZ  and
T. SMITH
W. SAMA
Affiliation:
Department of Public Health and Epidemiology, Swiss Tropical Institute, Socinstrasse 57, Postfach CH-4002, Basel, Switzerland
S. OWUSU-AGYEI
Affiliation:
Kintampo Health Research Centre, Ghana Health Service, P.O. Box 200, Kintampo, Ghana
I. FELGER
Affiliation:
Department of Medical Parasitology and Infection Biology, Swiss Tropical Institute, Socinstrasse 57, Postfach CH-4002, Basel, Switzerland
K. DIETZ
Affiliation:
Institut für Medizinische Biometrie, Westbahnhofstrasse 55, D-72070 Tübingen, Germany
T. SMITH
Affiliation:
Department of Public Health and Epidemiology, Swiss Tropical Institute, Socinstrasse 57, Postfach CH-4002, Basel, Switzerland
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Abstract

The effect of acquired immunity on the duration of Plasmodium falciparum infections is unclear, although this is an important term in models of malaria transmission. It is problematical to determine the duration of infections because of the difficulty of distinguishing persisting infections from new ones, and because parasite densities are often transiently below the limit of detection. We recently developed a dynamic model for infection incidence, clearance and detection of multiple genotype P. falciparum infections and fitted it to a panel dataset from a longitudinal study in Northern Ghana. We now extend this model to allow for seasonal and age variation in infection rates and also age dependence in clearance and in detectability of infections. These models indicate that there is seasonal variation in the infection rate, and age dependence in detectability. The best fitting models had no age dependence in infection or clearance rates, suggesting that acquired immunity mainly affects detectability.

Keywords

Plasmodium falciparuminfection rateclearance ratedetectabilityseasonal variationacquired immunitymodel
Type
Research Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 132 , Issue 1 , January 2006 , pp. 13 - 21
Copyright
© 2005 Cambridge University Press

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