Global database of matched Plasmodium falciparum and P. vivax incidence and prevalence records from 1985–2013

Measures of clinical incidence are necessary to help estimate the burden of a disease. Incidence is a metric not commonly measured in malariology because the longitudinal surveys required are costly and labour intensive. This database is an effort to collate published incidence records obtained using active case detection for Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax malaria. The literature search methods, data abstraction procedures and data processing procedures are described here. A total of 1,680 spatio-temporally unique incidence records were collected for the database: 1,187 for P. falciparum and 493 for P. vivax. These data were gathered to model the relationship between clinical incidence and prevalence of infection and can be used for a variety of modelling exercises including the assessment of change in disease burden in relation to age and control interventions. The subset of data that have been used for such modelling exercises are described and identified.