Project information
A large proportion of malaria infections are asymptomatic meaning that those infected do not seek treatment. However, these individuals remain infectious to mosquitoes and hence continue to sustain transmission. A proportion of these infections are 鈥渟ub-patent鈥 鈥 that is, low-density infections that are not detectable using standard diagnostics: light microscopy or current rapid diagnostic tests.
Our work focuses on combining prevalence and infectivity datasets from multiple transmission settings to characterise the "infectious reservoir" using insights from transmission dynamics models to understand the relative role of different individuals in sustaining transmission. We have characterised the proportion of infections which are sub-patent across different transmission settings, age groups and during pregnancy. In particular, we are interested in how this reservoir shifts as transmission declines and the implications of this shift for malaria elimination.
Selected publications
Whittaker C, Slater HC, Bousema T, Drakeley CJ, Ghani AC, Okell LC. . Lancet Microbe 2021
Walker P, Cairns M, Slater H, Gutman J, Kayentao K, Williams J, Coulibaly S, Khairallah C, Taylor S, Meshnick S, Hill J, Mwapasa V, Kalilani-Phiri L, Bojang K, Kariuki S, Tagbor H, Griffin J, Madanitsa M, Ghani A, Desai M, ter Kuile Fet al., 2020, , Nature Communications, Vol: 11, Pages: 1-12, ISSN: 2041-1723
Slater HC, Ross A, Felger I, Hofmann NE, Robinson L, Cook J, Goncalves B, Bj枚rkman A, Morris U, Msellem M, Ouedraogo AL, Koepfli C, Mueller I, Tadesse F, Gad. isa E, Das S, Domingo G, Kapulu M, Midega J, Owusu-Agyei S, Nabet C, Doumbo O, Piarroux R, Koram K, Lucchi N, Udhayakumar V, Mosha J, Tiono A, Chandramohan D, Gosling R, Mwingira F, Sauerwein R, Riley E, Paul R, White NJ, Nosten F, Imwong M, Bousema T, Drakeley C, Okell LC Nat Comms 2019.
Wu L, van de Hoogen L, Bousema T, Slater H, Ghani AC, Drakeley C, Okell L (2015). Nature 528 S86-93.
Bousema T, Okell L, Felger I, Drakeley C (2014). Asymptomatic malaria infections: detectability, transmissibility and public health relevance. Nat Rev Microbiol 12 833-40.
Okell LC, Bousema T, Griffin JT, Ouedraogo AL, Ghani AC, Drakeley CJ (2012). . Nature Communications 3 1237.
J. D. Challenger, D. Olivera Mesa, D. F. Da, R. S. Yerbanga, T. Lef猫vre, A. Cohuet and T. S. Churcher: . Nature Communications (2021)