Current methods can significantly overestimate the rates at which malaria parasites multiply in an infected person’s blood, which has important implications for determining their potential harm to a host, according to a new report.
The findings also have consequences for understanding the evolution of traits that lead to drug resistance, the speed at which a parasite might spread through a population, and evaluating the effectiveness of new vaccines.
The study, “Extraordinary Parasite Multiplication Rates in Human Malaria Infections,” appeared in the August issue of Trends in Parasitology.
The researchers created a mathematical model of infection dynamics to identify that blood sampling biases and false inferences in previous computer models were leading to significant overestimates.
“The inability to accurately measure those rates is concerning,” said Megan Greischar, assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and corresponding author on the paper. Lauren Childs, associate professor of mathematics at Virginia Tech, is a co-author.
2023-08-17 12:48:02
Original from phys.org