Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-15T03:27:08.778Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Eleven years of malaria surveillance in a Sudanese village highlights unexpected variation in individual disease susceptibility and outbreak severity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 August 2004

A. CREASEY ,
H. GIHA ,
A. A. HAMAD ,
I. M. EL HASSAN ,
T. G. THEANDER  and
D. E. ARNOT
A. CREASEY
Affiliation:
Institute of Cell, Animal and Population Biology, University of Edinburgh, King's Buildings, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JT, UK
H. GIHA
Affiliation:
Biochemistry Department, University of Khartoum, Sudan
A. A. HAMAD
Affiliation:
National Malaria Administration, National Health Laboratory, Ministry of Health, Khartoum, Sudan
I. M. EL HASSAN
Affiliation:
Institute of Endemic Diseases, University of Khartoum, Sudan
T. G. THEANDER
Affiliation:
Centre for Medical Parasitology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
D. E. ARNOT
Affiliation:
Institute of Cell, Animal and Population Biology, University of Edinburgh, King's Buildings, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JT, UK
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

An analysis is presented of continuous data collected over 11 years based on 1902600 person/days of observation on the malaria experience of the people of Daraweesh, a village in eastern Sudan. Malaria transmission is hypo-endemic: the acquisition of clinical immunity with age is not as obvious as in more holo-endemic areas and malaria remained a problem in all age groups throughout the study. However, this population, who are of Fulani origin, showed a distinctly variable level of disease susceptibility. Thirty-two percent of the village never reported malaria symptoms or required malaria treatment while others experienced up to 8 clinical episodes over the 11 years of observation. Malaria incidence was clearly influenced by drought but much less obviously by rainfall. To what extent outbreak patterns are explicable in terms of anopheline factors, and to human immune factors, remains an interesting question for malaria modelling in this, and in other low transmission zones, such as the burgeoning urban areas of modern Africa.

Keywords

Plasmodium falciparum malariaclinical incidencelongitudinal analysisSudan
Type
Research Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 129 , Issue 3 , September 2004 , pp. 263 - 271
Copyright
© 2004 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

CAVANAGH, D. R., ELHASSAN, I. M., ROPER, C., ROBINSON, V. J., GIHA, H., HOLDER, A. A., HVIID, L., THEANDER, T. G., ARNOT, D. E. & McBRIDE, J. S. ( 1998). A longitudinal study of type-specific antibody responses to Plasmodium falciparum merozoite surface protein-1 in an area of unstable malaria in Sudan. Journal of Immunology 161, 347–359.Google Scholar
CHRISTOPHERS, S. R. ( 1911). Malaria in the Pujnab. Scientific Memoirs of Officers of the Medical and Sanitary Department, Government of India, No. 46, 1–122. Government of India Printers, Calcutta.
CHRISTOPHERS, S. R. ( 1924). The mechanisms of immunity against malaria in communities living under hyper-endemic conditions. Indian Journal of Medical Research 12, 273–294.Google Scholar
ELHASSAN, I. M., HVIID, L., JAKOBSEN, P. H., GIHA, H., SATTI, G. M., ARNOT, D. E., JENSEN, J. B. & THEANDER, T. G. ( 1995). High proportion of subclinical Plasmodium falciparum infections in an area of seasonal and unstable malaria in Sudan. American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 53, 78–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
EL SAYED, B. B., ARNOT, D. E., MUKHTAR, M. M., BARAKA, O. Z., DAFALLA, A. A., ELNAIEM, D. E. & NUGUD, A. H. ( 2000). A study of the urban malaria transmission problem in Khartoum. Acta Tropica 75, 163–171.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
GIHA, H., ROSTHOJ, S., DODOO, D., HVIID, L., SATTI, G. M., SCHEIKE, T., ARNOT, D. E. & THEANDER, T. G. ( 2000). The epidemiology of febrile malaria episodes in an area of unstable and seasonal transmission. Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 94, 645–651.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
GIHA, H. A., THEANDER, T. G., STAALSOE, T., ROPER, C., ELHASSAN, I. M., BABIKER, H. A., SATTI, G. M., ARNOT, D. E. & HVIID, L. ( 1998). Seasonal variation in agglutination of Plasmodium falciparum-infected erythrocytes. American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 58, 399–405.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HACKETT, L. W. ( 1937). Malaria in Europe. Oxford Press, London.
HAMAD, A. A., ELHASSAN, I. M., EL KHALIFA, A. A., AHMED, G. I., ABDELRAHMIN, S. A., THEANDER, T. G. & ARNOT, D. E. ( 2000). Chronic Plasmodium falciparum infections in an area of low intensity malaria transmission in the Sudan. Parasitology 120, 447–456.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HAMAD, A. A., NUGUD, A. H., ARNOT, D. E., GIHA, H. A., ABDEL-MUHSIN, A. M., SATTI, G. M., THEANDER, T. G., CREASEY, A. M., BABIKER, H. A. & ELNAIEM, D. E. ( 2002). A marked seasonality of malaria transmission in two rural sites in eastern Sudan. Acta Tropica 83, 71–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MODIANO, D., PETRARCA, V., SIRIMA, B. S., NEBIE, I., DIALLO, D., ESPOSITO, F. & COLUZZI, M. ( 1996). Different response to Plasmodium falciparum malaria in west African sympatric ethnic groups. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 93, 13206–13211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MODIANO, D., PETRARCA, V., SIRIMA, B. S., LUONI, G., NEBIE, I., DIALLO, D., ESPOSITO, F. & COLUZZI, M. ( 1999). Different response to Plasmodium falciparum in West African sympatric ethnic groups: possible implications for malaria control strategies. Parassitologia 41, 193–197.Google Scholar
MODIANO, D., LUONI, G., SIRIMA, B. S., LANFRANCOTTI, A., PETRACA, V., CRUCIANI, F., SIMPORE, J., CIMINELLI, B. M., FOGLIETTA, E., GRSANTI, P., BIANCO, I., MODIANO, G. & COLUZZI, M. ( 2001). The lower susceptibility to Plasmodium falciparum malaria of Fulani of Burkina Faso (West Africa) is associated with low frequencies of classic malaria-resistance genes. Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 95, 149–152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
ROPER, C., ELHASSAN, I. M., HVIID, L., GIHA, H., RICHARDSON, W., BABIKER, H., SATTI, G. M., THEANDER, T. G. & ARNOT, D. E. ( 1996). Detection of very low level Plasmodium falciparum infections using the nested polymerase chain reaction and a reassessment of the epidemiology of unstable malaria in Sudan. American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 54, 325–331.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
ROPER, C., RICHARDSON, W., ELHASSAN, I. M., GIHA, H., HVIID, L., SATTI, G. M., THEANDER, T. G. & ARNOT, D. E. ( 1998). Seasonal changes in the Plasmodium falciparum population in individuals and their relationship to clinical malaria: a longitudinal study in a Sudanese village. Parasitology 116, 501–510.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SCHWETZ, J. ( 1949). Notes on endemic and acute malaria in Central African natives. Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 42, 403–410.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SWELLENGREBEL, N. H. ( 1950). The malaria epidemic of 1943–1946 in the province of North-Holland. Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 43, 445–476.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
TRAPE, J-F. & ZOULANI, A. ( 1987 a). Malaria and urbanization in central Africa: the example of Brazzaville. Part II: results of entomological surveys and epidemiological analysis. Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 81 (Suppl. 2), 10–18.Google Scholar
TRAPE, J-F. & ZOULANI, A. ( 1987 b). Malaria and urbanization in central Africa: the example of Brazzaville. Part III: relationships between urbanization and the intensity of malaria transmission. Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 81 (Suppl. 2), 19–25.Google Scholar
WILSON, D. B. ( 1939). Implications of malarial endemicity in East Africa. Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 32, 435–446.CrossRefGoogle Scholar