Natural Human Infections with Plasmodium cynomolgi, P. inui, and 4 other Simian Malaria Parasites, Malaysia.

Nan Jiun Yap,Loke Tim Khaw,Indra Vythilingam,Thamayanthi Nada-Raja,Azdayanti Muslim,Yvonne Ai-Lian Lim,Khamisah Abdul Kadir,Boon-Peng Hoh,Balbir Singh,Paul Cliff Simon Divis,Romano Ngui,Hanisah Hossain

doi:10.3201/eid2708.204502

Abstract

We detected the simian malaria parasites Plasmodium knowlesi, P. cynomolgi, P. inui, P. coatneyi, P. inui–like, and P. simiovale among forest fringe–living indigenous communities from various locations in Malaysia. Our findings underscore the importance of using molecular tools to identify newly emergent malaria parasites in humans.

Highlights

We detected the simian malaria parasites Plasmodium knowlesi, P. cynomolgi, P. inui, P. coatneyi, P. inui–like, and P. simiovale among forest fringe–living indigenous communities from various locations in Malaysia
With the aid of molecular methods, we aimed to investigate whether human infections with simian malaria parasites were present among indigenous communities in Malaysia whose villages are situated in the forest or at the forest fringe
Using species-specific nested PCR assays (Appendix), we identified these infections as monoinfections with P. knowlesi (n = 40), P. vivax (n = 21), P. cynomolgi (n = 9), P. falciparum (n = 6), P. coatneyi (n = 3), P. inui (n = 3), P. malariae (n = 2), and P. ovale curtisi (n = 1) (Table 1)

Summary

Negeri Sembilan

We could not identify the species of Plasmodium for sample UM6, 4 of the Plasmodium-positive samples from UM were Plasmodium negative, and all 5 Plasmodium-negative samples from UM (UM4, 8, 13, 19, 20) tested negative (Table 2) Because both laboratories at UM and UNIMAS had previously extracted DNA from macaque blood to examine for simian malaria parasites, we tested the samples for macaque DNA to rule out the possibility that the simian malaria parasites detected were the result of contamination with macaque blood. We obtained negative results using nested PCR for detection of macaque DNA for the 20 DNA samples when they were first received at UNIMAS and when we repeated testing after completing the sequencing of COX1 genes, indicating that these samples were not contaminated with macaque blood upon receipt or during subsequent experiments at UNIMAS.

SSU rRNA genes

Findings

Conclusions