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Review
. 2016 Jan 19;13(1):e1001942.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1001942. eCollection 2016 Jan.

"Asymptomatic" Malaria: A Chronic and Debilitating Infection That Should Be Treated

Ingrid Chen  1 , Siân E Clarke  2 , Roly Gosling  1 , Busiku Hamainza  3 , Gerry Killeen  4   5 , Alan Magill  6 , Wendy O'Meara  7 , Ric N Price  8   9 , Eleanor M Riley  10
Affiliations
Review

"Asymptomatic" Malaria: A Chronic and Debilitating Infection That Should Be Treated

Ingrid Chen et al. PLoS Med. .

Abstract

Roland Gosling and colleagues argue that "asymptomatic" malaria infections have significant health and societal consequences, and propose that they should be renamed "chronic" malaria infections.

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Conflict of interest statement

We have read the journal's policy and have the following conflicts: One of the authors (AM) works for a major funder.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Spectrum of malaria infection.
The figure shows increasing risks of morbidity, co-morbidity, mortality, and onward transmission as density of parasitemia increases. Note that malaria RDTs or microscopy are unable to detect low-density chronic infections below the threshold indicated and that infections of very low density are undetectable by PCR [64].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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