The influence of the genetic complexity of Plasmodium falciparum infections on the epidemiology of malaria

Abstract

Genetic characterization of malaria parasites in human blood stage infections has provided important insights into the genetics of Plasmodium falciparum populations and given rise to a field frequently referred to as ‘molecular epidemiology’. This might be defined as the combination of parasite population genetic analysis with clinical and epidemiological analysis of a study population in order to achieve a better understanding of infection and immunity and long-term patterns of disease incidence and severity. Longitudinal studies on infection and clinical disease incidence, combined with improvements in the sensitivity of detection of low level, normally asymptomatic, parasite infections have formed an important part of this effort. Two molecular epidemiological studies of malaria under low and moderate intensity transmission, in Sudan and Ghana respectively, are reviewed here to illustrate how the parasite genotyping approaches based on deoxyribonucleic acid which Douglas Barker pioneered in the study of Leishmania have developed after their application to malaria research.