Go to JCI Insight
  • About
  • Editors
  • Consulting Editors
  • For authors
  • Publication ethics
  • Publication alerts by email
  • Advertising
  • Job board
  • Contact
  • Clinical Research and Public Health
  • Current issue
  • Past issues
  • By specialty
    • COVID-19
    • Cardiology
    • Gastroenterology
    • Immunology
    • Metabolism
    • Nephrology
    • Neuroscience
    • Oncology
    • Pulmonology
    • Vascular biology
    • All ...
  • Videos
    • Conversations with Giants in Medicine
    • Video Abstracts
  • Reviews
    • View all reviews ...
    • Complement Biology and Therapeutics (May 2025)
    • Evolving insights into MASLD and MASH pathogenesis and treatment (Apr 2025)
    • Microbiome in Health and Disease (Feb 2025)
    • Substance Use Disorders (Oct 2024)
    • Clonal Hematopoiesis (Oct 2024)
    • Sex Differences in Medicine (Sep 2024)
    • Vascular Malformations (Apr 2024)
    • View all review series ...
  • Viewpoint
  • Collections
    • In-Press Preview
    • Clinical Research and Public Health
    • Research Letters
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Editorials
    • Commentaries
    • Editor's notes
    • Reviews
    • Viewpoints
    • 100th anniversary
    • Top read articles

  • Current issue
  • Past issues
  • Specialties
  • Reviews
  • Review series
  • Conversations with Giants in Medicine
  • Video Abstracts
  • In-Press Preview
  • Clinical Research and Public Health
  • Research Letters
  • Letters to the Editor
  • Editorials
  • Commentaries
  • Editor's notes
  • Reviews
  • Viewpoints
  • 100th anniversary
  • Top read articles
  • About
  • Editors
  • Consulting Editors
  • For authors
  • Publication ethics
  • Publication alerts by email
  • Advertising
  • Job board
  • Contact
The impact of malaria parasitism: from corpuscles to communities
Thomas E. Wellems, … , Karen Hayton, Rick M. Fairhurst
Thomas E. Wellems, … , Karen Hayton, Rick M. Fairhurst
Published September 1, 2009
Citation Information: J Clin Invest. 2009;119(9):2496-2505. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI38307.
View: Text | PDF
Review Series Article has an altmetric score of 8

The impact of malaria parasitism: from corpuscles to communities

  • Text
  • PDF
Abstract

Malaria continues to exert a tremendous health burden on human populations, reflecting astonishingly successful adaptations of the causative Plasmodium parasites. We discuss here how this burden has driven the natural selection of numerous polymorphisms in the genes encoding hemoglobin and other erythrocyte proteins and some effectors of immunity. Plasmodium falciparum, the most deadly parasite species in humans, displays a vigorous system of antigen variation to counter host defenses and families of functionally redundant ligands to invade human cells. Advances in genetics and genomics are providing fresh insights into the nature of these evolutionary adaptations, processes of parasite transmission and infection, and the difficult challenges of malaria control.

Authors

Thomas E. Wellems, Karen Hayton, Rick M. Fairhurst

×

Figure 3

An. gambiae entomological inoculation rates and infection outcomes in Africa.

Options: View larger image (or click on image) Download as PowerPoint

An. gambiae entomological inoculation rates and infection outcomes in A...
(A) The clinical outcome of P. falciparum sporozoite inoculation by an An. gambiae mosquito depends on many factors and can range from no infection to severe malaria and death. Greenwood et al. (121) estimated that in areas of high transmission, for every 400 infectious bites, 200 result in a parasite infection, half of which will develop uncomplicated malaria, with two cases of severe malaria and one death. (B) Relationship between the mosquito entomological inoculation rate (EIR) and the proportion of individuals infected with P. falciparum (14). Analysis of combined data from over 90 African communities indicated that 20% of people received 80% of infections and that enormous reductions of existing EIRs would be required to achieve even a modest decrease in parasite prevalence. For example, a two-fold reduction in the EIR, from 200 to 100 infectious bites per year, would reduce parasite prevalence by only 4%, whereas a 100-fold reduction in the EIR, from 100 infectious bites to 1 infectious bite, would reduce parasite prevalence from about 70% to 30%. Part B was generated based on data from ref. 14.

Copyright © 2025 American Society for Clinical Investigation
ISSN: 0021-9738 (print), 1558-8238 (online)

Sign up for email alerts

Blogged by 1
Referenced in 6 Wikipedia pages
175 readers on Mendeley
1 readers on CiteULike
See more details