# name
Plasmodium vivax and Plasmodium falciparum infection dynamics:
                re-infections, recrudescences and relapses

# metadata.dc.description.abstract[].value
BACKGROUND: In malaria endemic populations, complex patterns of
                Plasmodium vivax and Plasmodium falciparum blood-stage infection
                dynamics may be observed. Genotyping samples from longitudinal
                cohort studies for merozoite surface protein (msp) variants
                increases the information available in the data, allowing
                multiple infecting parasite clones in a single individual to be
                identified. msp genotyped samples from two longitudinal cohorts
                in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Thailand were analysed using a
                statistical model where the times of acquisition and clearance
                of each clone in every individual were estimated using a process
                of data augmentation. RESULTS: For the populations analysed, the
                duration of blood-stage P. falciparum infection was estimated as
                36 (95% Credible Interval (CrI): 29, 44) days in PNG, and 135
                (95% CrI 94, 191) days in Thailand. Experiments on simulated
                data indicated that it was not possible to accurately estimate
                the duration of blood-stage P. vivax infections due to the lack
                of identifiability between a single blood-stage infection and
                multiple, sequential blood-stage infections caused by relapses.
                Despite this limitation, the method and data point towards short
                duration of blood-stage P. vivax infection with a lower bound of
                24 days in PNG, and 29 days in Thailand. On an individual level,
                P. vivax recurrences cannot be definitively classified into
                re-infections, recrudescences or relapses, but a probabilistic
                relapse phenotype can be assigned to each P. vivax sample,
                allowing investigation of the association between
                epidemiological covariates and the incidence of relapses.
                CONCLUSION: The statistical model developed here provides a
                useful new tool for in-depth analysis of malaria data from
                longitudinal cohort studies, and future application to data sets
                with multi-locus genotyping will allow more detailed
                investigation of infection dynamics.

# metadata.dc.source[].value
Articles publicats en revistes (ISGlobal)

# metadata.dc.title[].value
Plasmodium vivax and Plasmodium falciparum infection dynamics:
                re-infections, recrudescences and relapses