Unraveling the contribution of Plasmodium vivax metapopulation on the persistence of malaria transmission in residual areas.

Despite adequate coverage of malaria intervention strategies in rural, remote areas, the elimination efforts vanished after some months, and residual malaria persists. Malaria importation might be playing a significant role in the maintenance of local transmission. From a fundamental perspective, this scenario reflects the metapopulation dynamics theory, where the parasite population's subdivisions are geographically dispersed but with limited interaction between the components. Events of extinction and recolonization give the maintenance of the metapopulation. For instance, after an adequate intervention, the parasite population might be diminished, but people returning to their villages carrying imported parasites may revert the effect. The present study aims to study the contribution of Plasmodium vivax metapopulation in the burden of residual malaria in villages sharing watersheds in the Amazon. We will unravel human mobility's role in the recolonization event by integrating epidemiological and travel data with the parasite population genetics. Our project is the first study to address P. vivax metapopulations as a significant challenge for elimination and seeks to develop a genomics platform that distinguishes among highly related parasites. The expected findings could provide crucial insights about a better design of intervention strategies.

Keywords:MALARIA, MOLECULAR EPIDEMIOLOGY, PERU, INFECTIOUS DISEASES

Disciplines:Bioinformatics of disease, Population, ecological and evolutionary genetics, Parasitology, Epidemiology

Project type:Collaboration project