children

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), in 2018, an estimated 228 million malaria cases occurred worldwide with most cases occurring in sub-Saharan Africa. Scale-up of vector control tools coupled with increased access to diagnosis and effective treatment has resulted in a large decline in malaria prevalence in some areas, but other areas have seen little change. Although interventional studies demonstrate that preventing malaria during pregnancy can reduce the rate of low birth weight (i.e. child’s birth weight <2500 g), it remains unknown whether natural changes in parasite transmission and malaria burden can improve birth outcomes.

Iron deficiency (ID) and malaria are common causes of ill-health and disability among children living in sub-Saharan Africa. Although iron is critical for the acquisition of humoral immunity, little is known about the effects of ID on antibody responses to Plasmodium falciparum malaria.

Plasmodium falciparum erythrocyte membrane protein 1 (PfEMP1) is a variant surface antigen family expressed on infected red blood cells that plays a role in immune evasion and mediates adhesion to vascular endothelium. PfEMP1s are potential targets of protective antibodies as suggested by previous seroepidemiology studies. Here, we used previously reported proteomic analyses of PfEMP1s of clinical parasite isolates collected from Malian children to identify targets of immunity.

Malaria vectors have acquired an enzyme that metabolizes pyrethroids. To tackle this problem, we evaluated long-lasting insecticidal nets incorporating piperonyl butoxide (PBO-LLINs) with a community-based cluster randomized control trial in western Kenya. The primary endpoints were anopheline density and Plasmodium falciparum polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-positive prevalence (PCRpfPR) of children aged 7 months to 10 years. Four clusters were randomly selected for each of the treatment and control arms (eight clusters in total) from 12 clusters, and PBO-LLINs and standard LLINs were distributed in February 2011 to 982 and 1,028 houses for treatment and control arms, respectively.