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Review
. 2024 Nov 19:19:100928.
doi: 10.1016/j.onehlt.2024.100928. eCollection 2024 Dec.

Autochthonous simian malaria in Brazil outside the Amazon: Emergence, zoonotic transmission and implications for disease control

Beatriz Pires da Silva  1   2 , Ricardo Lourenço-de-Oliveira  3 , Jacqueline de Aguiar Barros  4   5 , Patrícia Brasil  6 , Cláudio Tadeu Daniel-Ribeiro  1   2 , Maria de Fátima Ferreira da Cruz  1   2
Affiliations
Review

Autochthonous simian malaria in Brazil outside the Amazon: Emergence, zoonotic transmission and implications for disease control

Beatriz Pires da Silva et al. One Health. .

Abstract

Although human malaria is endemic in the Brazilian Amazonian region, autochthonous cases are registered regularly outside this region in areas under the couverture of the Atlantic Forest biome. The infecting species in the Atlantic Forest was initially believed to be the classical Plasmodium vivax. However, these locations have epidemiological characteristics that contribute to maintaining zoonotic monkey malaria, showing a great adaptation to different hosts, and many years later, it was discovered that almost all human malaria cases in the Atlantic Forest correspond to P. simium zoonosis. This review reported the history of discovering human infections by parasites originating from non-human primates in Brazil. It also examines epidemiology and underscores the need for specific preventive measures in the malaria elimination era. The data gathered so far have demonstrated that several factors enable zoonotic disease transmission in these areas. Given the facilitating ecological aspects involved and the scarce knowledge of the disease by the populations of the non-endemic area, this scenario adds difficulty to the challenge of eliminating malaria in Brazil.

Keywords: Atlantic Forest malaria; Bromeliad malaria; Plasmodium brasilianum; Plasmodium simium; Simian malaria; Zoonotic malaria.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: BPS reports financial support was provided by National Council for Scientific and Technological Development. RLO reports financial support was provided by National Council for Scientific and Technological Development. PB reports financial support was provided by National Council for Scientific and Technological Development. PB reports financial support was provided by Carlos Chagas Filho Foundation for Research Support of Rio de Janeiro State. CTDR reports financial support was provided by National Council for Scientific and Technological Development. CTDR reports financial support was provided by Carlos Chagas Filho Foundation for Research Support of Rio de Janeiro State. MFFC reports financial support was provided by National Council for Scientific and Technological Development. MFFC reports financial support was provided by Carlos Chagas Filho Foundation for Research Support of Rio de Janeiro State. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Zoonotic “bromeliad-malaria” cycle. (Adapted: Pina-Costa et al., 2014).
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Number of Atlantic Forest malaria cases from 2007 to 2023 in Brazil's south and southeast regions, according to SINAN.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Alouatta fusca (Source: Janaina Paula Black– Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul).
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Anopheles Kersteszia cruzii (By Genilton Vieira. Source: Pina-Costa et al., 2014).
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Bromeliads from the Atlantic Forest on the slopes of Serra do Mar on the north coast of Rio Grande do Sul (Source: Luiz Filipe Varella, 2010).
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Percentage of individuals positive for IgG against P. vivax by indirect immunofluorescence. (Adapted from Curado et al., 1997).
Fig. 7
Fig. 7
Atlantic Forest Area in Rio de Janeiro, Parque Nacional da Serra dos Órgãos. (Source: Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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