Asymptomatic malaria carriers and their characterization in hotpops of malaria at Mangalore

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to identify asymptomatic malaria carriers and study the differences in local and migrant population in Mangalore. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study was conducted using two-stage cluster sampling. In the first stage, wards were randomly selected. The sample size for each cluster (wards) was determined using the probability proportionate to size method. In the second stage, required number of households was selected using a simple random sampling technique from each cluster. From the selected clusters, samples from 140 participants were collected. RESULTS: Of the 140 cases, 106 (75.7%) were male and 34 (24.3%) were female. Six cases (4.3%) of the 140 cases were positive for malarial parasites, of which gametocytes of Plasmodium falciparum were noted in three cases and schizonts of Plasmodium vivax in three cases. From the total number of cases, 56 (40%) constituted the migrant population and the remaining 84 (60%) were the local population. All the six patients with asymptomatic carriers belonged to the migrant population. CONCLUSION: A more sound malaria elimination strategy needs to be implemented, for which active surveillance for cases would form a backbone. This study shows that the migrant population seems to show a predilection for asymptomatic malaria, thus targeting malaria elimination programs to areas with a high migrant population would help.