Cargando…

World Malaria Report: time to acknowledge Plasmodium knowlesi malaria

BACKGROUND: The 2016 World Health Organization (WHO) World Malaria Report documents substantial progress towards control and elimination of malaria. However, major challenges remain. In some regions of Southeast Asia, the simian parasite Plasmodium knowlesi has emerged as an important cause of human...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Barber, Bridget E., Rajahram, Giri S., Grigg, Matthew J., William, Timothy, Anstey, Nicholas M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5374563/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28359340
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12936-017-1787-y
_version_ 1782518913126367232
author Barber, Bridget E.
Rajahram, Giri S.
Grigg, Matthew J.
William, Timothy
Anstey, Nicholas M.
author_facet Barber, Bridget E.
Rajahram, Giri S.
Grigg, Matthew J.
William, Timothy
Anstey, Nicholas M.
author_sort Barber, Bridget E.
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The 2016 World Health Organization (WHO) World Malaria Report documents substantial progress towards control and elimination of malaria. However, major challenges remain. In some regions of Southeast Asia, the simian parasite Plasmodium knowlesi has emerged as an important cause of human malaria, and the authors believe this species warrants regular inclusion in the World Malaria Report. MAIN TEXT: Plasmodium knowlesi is the most common cause of malaria in Malaysia, and cases have also been reported in nearly all countries of Southeast Asia. Outside of Malaysia, P. knowlesi is frequently misdiagnosed by microscopy as Plasmodium falciparum or Plasmodium vivax. Thus, P. knowlesi may be underdiagnosed in affected regions and its true incidence underestimated. Acknowledgement in the World Malaria Report of the regional importance of P. knowlesi will facilitate efforts to improve surveillance of this emerging parasite. Furthermore, increased recognition will likely lead to improved delivery of effective treatment for this potentially fatal infection, as has occurred in Malaysia where P. knowlesi case-fatality rates have fallen despite rising incidence. In a number of knowlesi-endemic countries, substantial progress has been made towards the elimination of P. vivax and P. falciparum. However, efforts to eliminate these human-only species should not preclude efforts to reduce human malaria from P. knowlesi. The regional importance of knowlesi malaria was recognized by the WHO with its recent Evidence Review Group meeting on knowlesi malaria to address strategies for prevention and mitigation. CONCLUSION: The WHO World Malaria Report has an appropriate focus on falciparum and vivax malaria, the major causes of global mortality and morbidity. However, the authors hope that in future years this important publication will also incorporate data on the progress and challenges in reducing knowlesi malaria in regions where transmission occurs.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-5374563
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2017
publisher BioMed Central
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-53745632017-03-31 World Malaria Report: time to acknowledge Plasmodium knowlesi malaria Barber, Bridget E. Rajahram, Giri S. Grigg, Matthew J. William, Timothy Anstey, Nicholas M. Malar J Opinion BACKGROUND: The 2016 World Health Organization (WHO) World Malaria Report documents substantial progress towards control and elimination of malaria. However, major challenges remain. In some regions of Southeast Asia, the simian parasite Plasmodium knowlesi has emerged as an important cause of human malaria, and the authors believe this species warrants regular inclusion in the World Malaria Report. MAIN TEXT: Plasmodium knowlesi is the most common cause of malaria in Malaysia, and cases have also been reported in nearly all countries of Southeast Asia. Outside of Malaysia, P. knowlesi is frequently misdiagnosed by microscopy as Plasmodium falciparum or Plasmodium vivax. Thus, P. knowlesi may be underdiagnosed in affected regions and its true incidence underestimated. Acknowledgement in the World Malaria Report of the regional importance of P. knowlesi will facilitate efforts to improve surveillance of this emerging parasite. Furthermore, increased recognition will likely lead to improved delivery of effective treatment for this potentially fatal infection, as has occurred in Malaysia where P. knowlesi case-fatality rates have fallen despite rising incidence. In a number of knowlesi-endemic countries, substantial progress has been made towards the elimination of P. vivax and P. falciparum. However, efforts to eliminate these human-only species should not preclude efforts to reduce human malaria from P. knowlesi. The regional importance of knowlesi malaria was recognized by the WHO with its recent Evidence Review Group meeting on knowlesi malaria to address strategies for prevention and mitigation. CONCLUSION: The WHO World Malaria Report has an appropriate focus on falciparum and vivax malaria, the major causes of global mortality and morbidity. However, the authors hope that in future years this important publication will also incorporate data on the progress and challenges in reducing knowlesi malaria in regions where transmission occurs. BioMed Central 2017-03-31 /pmc/articles/PMC5374563/ /pubmed/28359340 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12936-017-1787-y Text en © The Author(s) 2017 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Opinion
Barber, Bridget E.
Rajahram, Giri S.
Grigg, Matthew J.
William, Timothy
Anstey, Nicholas M.
World Malaria Report: time to acknowledge Plasmodium knowlesi malaria
title World Malaria Report: time to acknowledge Plasmodium knowlesi malaria
title_full World Malaria Report: time to acknowledge Plasmodium knowlesi malaria
title_fullStr World Malaria Report: time to acknowledge Plasmodium knowlesi malaria
title_full_unstemmed World Malaria Report: time to acknowledge Plasmodium knowlesi malaria
title_short World Malaria Report: time to acknowledge Plasmodium knowlesi malaria
title_sort world malaria report: time to acknowledge plasmodium knowlesi malaria
topic Opinion
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5374563/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28359340
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12936-017-1787-y
work_keys_str_mv AT barberbridgete worldmalariareporttimetoacknowledgeplasmodiumknowlesimalaria
AT rajahramgiris worldmalariareporttimetoacknowledgeplasmodiumknowlesimalaria
AT griggmatthewj worldmalariareporttimetoacknowledgeplasmodiumknowlesimalaria
AT williamtimothy worldmalariareporttimetoacknowledgeplasmodiumknowlesimalaria
AT ansteynicholasm worldmalariareporttimetoacknowledgeplasmodiumknowlesimalaria