Malaria Prevalence among Young Infants in Different Transmission Settings, Africa

Abstract

Preventive measures and treatment guidelines are needed to address the sizeable prevalence of disease in this population.

The potential acceptability of infant vaccination against malaria: A mapping of parental positions in Togo

“…Among the most vulnerable of this population are infants, among whom malaria prevalence is between 10.2 and 21.7% [2], while its mortality rate ranges from 20.1 to 46.2% [3]. Considerable progress is being made in developing a malaria vaccine [4], which is the most effective long-term strategy for preventing malaria.…”

Dynamics of asymptomatic infections and symptomatic malaria show different temporal profiles among infants living in a high transmission area of Ghana

“…Consequently, the profiles obtained for infants in this study could change if our definitions followed any of the above. However upon infection, infants show symptoms, compared to remaining asymptomatic (8,11,29,43), and this informed our expanded search for passive/hospital visits, elevated temperature, illnesses or fever, 48 hours before and seven days after an infection was detected. Further, the susceptibility of infants to symptomatic malaria enabled us to classify any infection unaccompanied with symptoms or morbidity within the set time frame as truly asymptomatic.…”

“…Infants experience both asymptomatic infections and symptomatic malaria (8,9). However, during the first six months of life, infections are reported to be mainly asymptomatic, while between six and twelve months of age the incidence of both asymptomatic and symptomatic malaria infections increase (8,(10)(11)(12)(13). The low incidence of symptomatic malaria below six months of age has been attributed to presence of fetal hemoglobin (14,15) and passively acquired maternal IgG (16).…”

Uncomplicated Malaria in Children under 6 Months or Less than 5 Kg; How Prescribers in Ghana Manage it in the Absence of a National Policy

“…In Cameroun, the prevalence of malaria parasitemia between four and six months of age was higher among infants born to women with malaria infected placentas than in those born to women without placental infection [16]. National Malaria Indicator surveys in some African countries such as Nigeria, Malawi, Uganda, Kenya, Guinea, the Gambia and Benin found malaria prevalence rate in children aged less than six months to be between 3.7% and 27% [13,[17][18][19]. Effect of assumption of absence of malaria in children under 6 months had led to limited research and policy guidelines on the treatment of this condition in this age group and are therefore generally excluded from the regulatory trials of anti-malarial drugs during drug development [14,20].…”