@article{Natama2018-ha,

title = {Malaria incidence and prevalence during the first year of life in  Nanoro, Burkina Faso: a birth-cohort study},

author = {Hamtandi Magloire Natama and Eduard Rovira-Vallbona and M Athanase Som\'{e} and Serge Henri Zango and Hermann Sorgho and Pieter Guetens and Maminata Coulibaly-Traor\'{e} and Innocent Valea and Petra F Mens and Henk D F H Schallig and Luc Kestens and Halidou Tinto and Anna Rosanas-Urgell},

doi = {10.1186/s12936-018-2315-4},

issn = {1475-2875},

year  = {2018},

date = {2018-04-01},

urldate = {2018-04-01},

journal = {Malar. J.},

volume = {17},

number = {1},

pages = {163},

abstract = {BACKGROUND: Infants are thought to be protected against malaria 

 during the first months of life mainly due to passage of maternal 

 antibodies. However, in high transmission settings, malaria in 

 early infancy is not uncommon and susceptibility to the 

 infections varies between individuals. This study aimed to 

 determine malaria morbidity and infection during early childhood 

 in rural Burkina Faso. METHODS: Malariometric indices were 

 determined over 1-year follow-up in a birth cohort of 734 infants 

 living in Nanoro health district. Clinical malaria episodes were 

 determined by passive case detection at peripheral health centres 

 while asymptomatic malaria infections were identified during 4 

 cross-sectional surveys at 3, 6, 9 and 12 months of age. 

 Plasmodium falciparum infections were detected by rapid 

 diagnostic test and/or light microscopy (LM) and quantitative PCR 

 (qPCR). RESULTS: In total, 717 clinical episodes were diagnosed 

 by qPCR over 8335.18 person-months at risk. The overall malaria 

 incidence was 1.03 per child-year and increased from 0.27 per 

 child-year at 0-3 months of age to 1.92 per child-year at 9-12 

 months of age. Some 59% of children experienced at least one 

 clinical episode with a median survival time estimated at 9.9 

 months, while 20% of infants experienced the first episode 

 before 6 months of age. The majority of the clinical episodes 

 were attributable to microscopic parasitaemia (84.2%), and there 

 was a positive correlation between parasite density and age (Spearman's rho = 0.30; P \< 0.0001). Prevalence of asymptomatic 

 infections was similar at 3, 6 and 9 months of age (17.7-20.1%) 

 and nearly 1.6 times higher at 12 months (31.3%). Importantly, 

 gametocyte prevalence among the LM-positive study population was 

 6.7%, but increased to 10% among asymptomatic infections. In 

 addition, 46% of asymptomatic infections were only detected by 

 qPCR suggesting that infants below 1 year are a potential 

 reservoir for sustaining malaria transmission. Both symptomatic 

 and asymptomatic infections showed marked seasonal distribution 

 with the highest transmission period (July to December) 

 accounting for about 89 and 77% of those infections, 

 respectively. CONCLUSIONS: These findings indicate high and 

 marked age and seasonal-dependency of malaria infections and 

 disease during the first year of life in Nanoro, calling for 

 intensified efforts to control malaria in rural Burkina Faso.},

keywords = {Burkina Faso; Incidence; Infants; Malaria; Prevalence},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}