University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) researchers have determined treating silent malaria cases could help stop the spread of the disease to others.
Officials said silent malaria cases are circumstances in which individuals are infected with malaria parasites without symptoms.
Researchers said the work involved using a genotyping method to determine the molecular fingerprint of each parasite, studying 114 participants in Malawi ranging from children to adults to better understand the role asymptomatic malaria infections have in the spread and occurrence of malaria illness.
The authors said they learned when people who have asymptomatic malaria infection and get sick from malaria, it is because they acquire a new infection, rather than having the asymptomatic infection develop into clinical disease.
With new infections, adults and children with and without asymptomatic infection were equally likely to get sick, which researchers said allowed them to conclude asymptomatic infection did not protect against new infections that made them sick.
“We have always worried that if we give medicine to treat malaria to people with asymptomatic infection, they might get sicker the next time they get malaria,” said Miriam Laufer, associate professor of Pediatrics and associate director for Malaria Research in UMSOM’s Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health (CVD). “This has been a challenge to introducing new policies like mass drug administration or screening and treating campaigns to interrupt malaria transmission. Our results suggest that treating asymptomatic infection will not lead to increased risk of disease in the short term. Now we need to evaluate these new interventions to determine the long-term impact both on the individual’s health and also on malaria transmission.”