Quantifying the contribution of Plasmodium falciparum malaria to febrile illness amongst African children

Suspected malaria cases in Africa increasingly receive a rapid diagnostic test (RDT) before antimalarials are prescribed. While this ensures efficient use of resources to clear parasites, the underlying cause of the individual's fever remains unknown due to potential coinfection with a non-mala...

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Главные авторы: Dalrymple, U, Cameron, E, Bhatt, S, Weiss, D, Gupta, S, Gething, P
Формат: Journal article
Опубликовано: eLife Sciences Publications 2017
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author Dalrymple, U
Cameron, E
Bhatt, S
Weiss, D
Gupta, S
Gething, P
author_facet Dalrymple, U
Cameron, E
Bhatt, S
Weiss, D
Gupta, S
Gething, P
author_sort Dalrymple, U
collection OXFORD
description Suspected malaria cases in Africa increasingly receive a rapid diagnostic test (RDT) before antimalarials are prescribed. While this ensures efficient use of resources to clear parasites, the underlying cause of the individual's fever remains unknown due to potential coinfection with a non-malarial febrile illness. Widespread use of RDTs does not necessarily prevent over-estimation of clinical malaria cases or sub-optimal case management of febrile patients. We present a new approach that allows inference of the spatiotemporal prevalence of both Plasmodium falciparum malaria-attributable and non-malarial fever in sub-Saharan African children from 2006-2014. We estimate that 35.7% of all self-reported fevers were accompanied by a malaria infection in 2014, but that only 28.0% of those (10.0% of all fevers) were causally attributable to malaria. Most fevers among malaria-positive children are therefore caused by non-malaria illnesses. This refined understanding can help improve interpretation of the burden of febrile illness and shape policy on fever case management.
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spelling oxford-uuid:3a6032a9-2e29-47a9-b603-29d8a591a48d2022-03-26T14:01:17ZQuantifying the contribution of Plasmodium falciparum malaria to febrile illness amongst African childrenJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:3a6032a9-2e29-47a9-b603-29d8a591a48dSymplectic Elements at OxfordeLife Sciences Publications2017Dalrymple, UCameron, EBhatt, SWeiss, DGupta, SGething, PSuspected malaria cases in Africa increasingly receive a rapid diagnostic test (RDT) before antimalarials are prescribed. While this ensures efficient use of resources to clear parasites, the underlying cause of the individual's fever remains unknown due to potential coinfection with a non-malarial febrile illness. Widespread use of RDTs does not necessarily prevent over-estimation of clinical malaria cases or sub-optimal case management of febrile patients. We present a new approach that allows inference of the spatiotemporal prevalence of both Plasmodium falciparum malaria-attributable and non-malarial fever in sub-Saharan African children from 2006-2014. We estimate that 35.7% of all self-reported fevers were accompanied by a malaria infection in 2014, but that only 28.0% of those (10.0% of all fevers) were causally attributable to malaria. Most fevers among malaria-positive children are therefore caused by non-malaria illnesses. This refined understanding can help improve interpretation of the burden of febrile illness and shape policy on fever case management.
spellingShingle Dalrymple, U
Cameron, E
Bhatt, S
Weiss, D
Gupta, S
Gething, P
Quantifying the contribution of Plasmodium falciparum malaria to febrile illness amongst African children
title Quantifying the contribution of Plasmodium falciparum malaria to febrile illness amongst African children
title_full Quantifying the contribution of Plasmodium falciparum malaria to febrile illness amongst African children
title_fullStr Quantifying the contribution of Plasmodium falciparum malaria to febrile illness amongst African children
title_full_unstemmed Quantifying the contribution of Plasmodium falciparum malaria to febrile illness amongst African children
title_short Quantifying the contribution of Plasmodium falciparum malaria to febrile illness amongst African children
title_sort quantifying the contribution of plasmodium falciparum malaria to febrile illness amongst african children
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