Prevalence of submicroscopic malaria infection in immigrants living in Spain

• Main Authors: Isabel Fradejas, José Miguel Rubio, Ariadna Martín-Díaz, Juan María Herrero-Martínez, José Manuel Ruiz-Giardin, Gerardo Rojo-Marcos, María Velasco, María Calderón-Moreno, José Manuel Azcona-Gutierrez, Francisco Jesús Merino, Belén Andrés Olmo, María Espinosa, María Cuadrado, Esther González-Monte, Jerónimo Jaqueti, Juan Cuadros, Carolina Campelo, Alberto Delgado-Iribarren, Pablo Martín-Rabadán, Concepción García-García, María Ángeles Martín-Laso, Beatriz Valle-Borrego, María Coral García, Manuel Lizasoaín, Ana Pérez-Ayala
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: BMC 2019-07-01
• Series: Malaria Journal
• Subjects: Plasmodium; Afebrile malaria; Submicroscopic parasitaemia; Immigrant; Tropical medicine
• Online Access: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12936-019-2870-3

Abstract Background The importance of submicroscopic malaria infections in high-transmission areas could contribute to maintain the parasite cycle. Regarding non-endemic areas, its importance remains barely understood because parasitaemia in these afebrile patients is usually below the detection limits for microscopy, hence molecular techniques are often needed for its diagnosis. In addition to this, the lack of standardized protocols for the screening of submicroscopic malaria in immigrants from endemic areas may underestimate the infection with Plasmodium spp. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of submicroscopic malaria in afebrile immigrants living in a non-endemic area. Methods A prospective, observational, multicentre study was conducted. Afebrile immigrants were included, microscopic observation of Giemsa-stained thin and thick blood smears, and two different molecular techniques detecting Plasmodium spp. were performed. Patients with submicroscopic malaria were defined as patients with negative blood smears and detection of DNA of Plasmodium spp. with one or both molecular techniques. Demographic, clinical, analytical and microbiological features were recorded and univariate analysis by subgroups was carried out with STATA v15. Results A total of 244 afebrile immigrants were included in the study. Of them, 14 had a submicroscopic malaria infection, yielding a prevalence of 5.7% (95% confidence interval 3.45–9.40). In 71.4% of the positive PCR/negative microscopy cases, Plasmodium falciparum alone was the main detected species (10 out of the 14 patients) and in 4 cases (28.6%) Plasmodium vivax or Plasmodium ovale were detected. One patient had a mixed infection including three different species. Conclusions The prevalence of submicroscopic malaria in afebrile immigrants was similar to that previously described in Spain. Plasmodium vivax and P. ovale were detected in almost a third of the submicroscopic infections. Screening protocols for afebrile immigrants with molecular techniques could be useful for a proper management of these patients.