High prevalence of malaria infection in Amazonas state, Venezuela

Revista do Instituto de Medicina Tropical de São Paulo

Hectorina Rodulfo²  Marcos De Donato²  Isaurea Quijada²  Ada Peña¹ 

[1] ,Universidad de Oriente IIBCA Lab. Genetica MolecularCumana,Venezuela

关键词: Epidemiology;    Malaria;    PCR;    P. falciparum;    P. vivax;   

DOI  :  10.1590/S0036-46652007000200003

来源: SciELO

【 摘 要 】

This study was carried out to determine the incidence of malaria in an endemic region of Amazonas State, Venezuela. For this, 200 random samples were collected from symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals from San Fernando de Atabapo and Santa Barbara. Epidemiological factors were related to malaria infection, which was diagnosed by microscopy observation and amplification of the 18S rDNA sequence by PCR. Malaria prevalence in these populations was 28.5%, whilst P. vivax and P. falciparum prevalences were 12 and 17%, respectively. No infection by P. malariae was found. A mixed infection was found on an asymptomatic individual. Prevalence patterns differed between age groups depending on the Plasmodium species. We found that 34.8% of the P. vivax and 15.2% of the P. falciparum infections were asymptomatic. The use of nets was helpful to prevent P. vivax infection, but did not protect against P. falciparum infection. The results suggest the presence of more than one mosquito vector in the area, displaying a differential pattern of infection for each Plasmodium species. There appear to be risk factors associated with malaria infections in some individuals. The population based approach and PCR diagnosis improved the accuracy of the statistical analysis in the study.

【 授权许可】

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