PET-PCR reveals low parasitaemia and submicroscopic malarial infections in Honduran Moskitia
Abstract Background Malaria remains a main parasitic disease of humans. Although the largest number of cases is reported in the African region, there are still endemic foci in the Americas. Central America reported 36,000 malaria cases in 2020, which represents 5.5% of cases in the Americas and 0.01...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:e45174fa9c4744ce8799a3c29900665a 2023-05-15T15:16:22+02:00 PET-PCR reveals low parasitaemia and submicroscopic malarial infections in Honduran Moskitia Gabriela Matamoros Denis Escobar Alejandra Pinto Delmy Serrano Eliška Ksandrová Nicole Grimaldi Gabriel Juárez-Fontecha Marcela Moncada Hugo O. Valdivia Gustavo Fontecha 2023-03-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1186/s12936-023-04538-x https://doaj.org/article/e45174fa9c4744ce8799a3c29900665a EN eng BMC https://doi.org/10.1186/s12936-023-04538-x https://doaj.org/toc/1475-2875 doi:10.1186/s12936-023-04538-x 1475-2875 https://doaj.org/article/e45174fa9c4744ce8799a3c29900665a Malaria Journal, Vol 22, Iss 1, Pp 1-10 (2023) Submicroscopic malaria Parasitaemia Plasmodium species Nested PCR PET-PCR Honduras Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Infectious and parasitic diseases RC109-216 article 2023 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1186/s12936-023-04538-x 2023-04-09T00:35:34Z Abstract Background Malaria remains a main parasitic disease of humans. Although the largest number of cases is reported in the African region, there are still endemic foci in the Americas. Central America reported 36,000 malaria cases in 2020, which represents 5.5% of cases in the Americas and 0.015% of cases globally. Most malaria infections in Central America are reported in La Moskitia, shared by Honduras and Nicaragua. In the Honduran Moskitia, less than 800 cases were registered in 2020, considering it an area of low endemicity. In low endemicity settings, the number of submicroscopic and asymptomatic infections tends to increase, leaving many cases undetected and untreated. These reservoirs challenge national malaria elimination programmes. This study aimed to assess the diagnostic performance of Light Microscopy (LM), a nested PCR test and a photoinduced electron transfer polymerase chain reaction (PET-PCR) in a population of febrile patients from La Moskitia. Methods A total of 309 febrile participants were recruited using a passive surveillance approach at the Puerto Lempira hospital. Blood samples were analysed by LM, nested PCR, and PET-PCR. Diagnostic performance including sensitivity, specificity, negative and positive predictive values, kappa index, accuracy, and ROC analysis was evaluated. The parasitaemia of the positive samples was quantified by both LM and PET-PCR. Results The overall prevalence of malaria was 19.1% by LM, 27.8% by nPCR, and 31.1% by PET-PCR. The sensitivity of LM was 67.4% compared to nPCR, and the sensitivity of LM and nPCR was 59.6% and 80.8%, respectively, compared to PET-PCR. LM showed a kappa index of 0.67, with a moderate level of agreement. Forty positive cases by PET-PCR were not detected by LM. Conclusions This study demonstrated that LM is unable to detect parasitaemia at low levels and that there is a high degree of submicroscopic infections in the Honduran Moskitia. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Environmental Research Communications 5 3 031010 |
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Open Polar |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
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ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
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Submicroscopic malaria Parasitaemia Plasmodium species Nested PCR PET-PCR Honduras Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Infectious and parasitic diseases RC109-216 |
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Submicroscopic malaria Parasitaemia Plasmodium species Nested PCR PET-PCR Honduras Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Infectious and parasitic diseases RC109-216 Gabriela Matamoros Denis Escobar Alejandra Pinto Delmy Serrano Eliška Ksandrová Nicole Grimaldi Gabriel Juárez-Fontecha Marcela Moncada Hugo O. Valdivia Gustavo Fontecha PET-PCR reveals low parasitaemia and submicroscopic malarial infections in Honduran Moskitia |
topic_facet |
Submicroscopic malaria Parasitaemia Plasmodium species Nested PCR PET-PCR Honduras Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Infectious and parasitic diseases RC109-216 |
description |
Abstract Background Malaria remains a main parasitic disease of humans. Although the largest number of cases is reported in the African region, there are still endemic foci in the Americas. Central America reported 36,000 malaria cases in 2020, which represents 5.5% of cases in the Americas and 0.015% of cases globally. Most malaria infections in Central America are reported in La Moskitia, shared by Honduras and Nicaragua. In the Honduran Moskitia, less than 800 cases were registered in 2020, considering it an area of low endemicity. In low endemicity settings, the number of submicroscopic and asymptomatic infections tends to increase, leaving many cases undetected and untreated. These reservoirs challenge national malaria elimination programmes. This study aimed to assess the diagnostic performance of Light Microscopy (LM), a nested PCR test and a photoinduced electron transfer polymerase chain reaction (PET-PCR) in a population of febrile patients from La Moskitia. Methods A total of 309 febrile participants were recruited using a passive surveillance approach at the Puerto Lempira hospital. Blood samples were analysed by LM, nested PCR, and PET-PCR. Diagnostic performance including sensitivity, specificity, negative and positive predictive values, kappa index, accuracy, and ROC analysis was evaluated. The parasitaemia of the positive samples was quantified by both LM and PET-PCR. Results The overall prevalence of malaria was 19.1% by LM, 27.8% by nPCR, and 31.1% by PET-PCR. The sensitivity of LM was 67.4% compared to nPCR, and the sensitivity of LM and nPCR was 59.6% and 80.8%, respectively, compared to PET-PCR. LM showed a kappa index of 0.67, with a moderate level of agreement. Forty positive cases by PET-PCR were not detected by LM. Conclusions This study demonstrated that LM is unable to detect parasitaemia at low levels and that there is a high degree of submicroscopic infections in the Honduran Moskitia. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Gabriela Matamoros Denis Escobar Alejandra Pinto Delmy Serrano Eliška Ksandrová Nicole Grimaldi Gabriel Juárez-Fontecha Marcela Moncada Hugo O. Valdivia Gustavo Fontecha |
author_facet |
Gabriela Matamoros Denis Escobar Alejandra Pinto Delmy Serrano Eliška Ksandrová Nicole Grimaldi Gabriel Juárez-Fontecha Marcela Moncada Hugo O. Valdivia Gustavo Fontecha |
author_sort |
Gabriela Matamoros |
title |
PET-PCR reveals low parasitaemia and submicroscopic malarial infections in Honduran Moskitia |
title_short |
PET-PCR reveals low parasitaemia and submicroscopic malarial infections in Honduran Moskitia |
title_full |
PET-PCR reveals low parasitaemia and submicroscopic malarial infections in Honduran Moskitia |
title_fullStr |
PET-PCR reveals low parasitaemia and submicroscopic malarial infections in Honduran Moskitia |
title_full_unstemmed |
PET-PCR reveals low parasitaemia and submicroscopic malarial infections in Honduran Moskitia |
title_sort |
pet-pcr reveals low parasitaemia and submicroscopic malarial infections in honduran moskitia |
publisher |
BMC |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12936-023-04538-x https://doaj.org/article/e45174fa9c4744ce8799a3c29900665a |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_source |
Malaria Journal, Vol 22, Iss 1, Pp 1-10 (2023) |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12936-023-04538-x https://doaj.org/toc/1475-2875 doi:10.1186/s12936-023-04538-x 1475-2875 https://doaj.org/article/e45174fa9c4744ce8799a3c29900665a |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12936-023-04538-x |
container_title |
Environmental Research Communications |
container_volume |
5 |
container_issue |
3 |
container_start_page |
031010 |
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1766346655728140288 |