Abstract
Among the Plasmodium species that infect humans, P. falciparum has been largely studied in malaria endemic areas. However, P. malariae infection is less documented among the human population. This study aimed to monitor the prevalence and distribution of P. malariae in Southern Benin. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in rural localities in the Ouidah–Kpomasse–Tori Bossito (OKT) health district in Southern Benin from June to October 2019. Socio-demographic data were collected using a questionnaire, while malaria infection data were obtained on the one hand by microscopy diagnosis and, on the other, by nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Based on microscopy, the prevalence of P. malariae mono-infection and coinfection of P. falciparum, P. malariae was respectively 2.3% and 1.2% in the OKT health district. This prevalence was higher (P < 0.01) than that reported by Damien et al. (2010) 10 years ago in the same study area with 0.7% and 0.3% of P. malariae and P. falciparum/P. malariae, respectively. Based on PCR analysis, P. malariae prevalence was 14.1%, including 5.2% of mono-infection and 8.9% of mixed infection with P. falciparum. Sub-microscopic Plasmodium infections were high (30.6%) and more pronounced in older participants (>20 years). The present study revealed that P. malariae increased in the OKT health district with a high prevalence of submicroscopic infection. Since our results provide valuable evidence of increasing P. malariae infection, the National Malaria Control Programs (NMCPs) must consider P. malariae when designing future measures for effective control and malaria treatment.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the study population and communities for their participation and the administration of the health district of Ouidah and Kpomasse for their strong and fruitful collaboration. We thank Jacqueline Affedjou, nurse at FORS, for data collection, Agnes Ahouangnito, Souradji Idrissou, and Justine Ahlonssou microscopists at FORS for slide reading. We are grateful to Perugine Akoton for developing study maps. We appreciate Mecit Abdel Issifou, Abil Adegnika, and Souwebath Tassou working at FORS for their relevant technical assistance during data collection. We also wish to thank the Wellcome Trust for the grant (109917/Z/15/Z) awarded to LSD for their support.
Funding
This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) grant (BO 2494/3-1) awarded to the CoMal project consortium. The funders did not play a role in the design of the study, collection, analysis, and interpretation of data, as well as the writing of the manuscript.
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Romuald Agonhossou: investigation, methodology, writing – original draft, formal analysis, review and editing. Romaric Akoton: investigation, methodology, writing – original draft, review and editing. Yannelle A. Dossou: investigation. Euripide Avokpaho: investigation. Jacques D. M. Ntabi: investigation. Terence S. Boussougou-Sambe: investigation. Nongley N. Francis: investigation. Cyrille Ndo: investigation. Francine Ntoumi: review and editing. Charles S. Wondji: review and editing. Ayola A. Adegnika: review and editing. Steffen Borrmann: conceptualization, funding acquisition, methodology, project administration, review and editing. Saadou Issifou: conceptualization, funding acquisition, investigation, methodology, project administration, supervision, validation, visualization. Luc S Djogbénou: conceptualization, funding acquisition, investigation, methodology, project administration, supervision, validation, visualization, review and editing
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Ethical clearance (N°115/2018/CER-ISBA/FSS/UAC of 29th October 2018) was given for the study by the Ethical Committee of the Faculty of Sciences and Health, and the authorities approved the study of Ouidah–Kpomasse–Tori Bossito health district. Written informed consent was obtained from the volunteer inhabitants enrolled. The informed consent form and survey were signed/filled out by a parent or tutor for participants aged less than 18 years old. Malaria-positive cases among recruited participants were treated with ACT, according to NMCP guidelines.
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Agonhossou, R., Akoton, R., Dossou, Y.A. et al. Surveillance of Plasmodium malariae infection among inhabitants of rural areas in Ouidah–Kpomasse–Tori Bossito health district, Benin. Parasitol Res 121, 275–286 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-021-07398-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-021-07398-z