Susceptibility to vivax malaria in Ethiopia.
Plasmodium vivax prevalence rates for Nilotic and Hamitic-Semitic residents of an Ethiopian town were compared. Over a ten-year period, 8,316 blood films from Nilotes were examined and 59 P. vivax infections (0.7%) were diagnosed. In 1,630 films from Hamito-Semites, 75 probable P. vivax infections (4.6%) were found. The problem of morphological differentiation between P. vivax and P. ovale was evaded by combining the two diagnoses. P. vivax/ovale infection rates for Hamitic-Semitic subjects were higher than for Nilotic subjects in all age groups. It was concluded that the two populations are inately different in susceptibility to patient infection with vivax malaria.
D005002:Ethiopia; D005006:Ethnicity; D006801:Humans; D008288:Malaria / Q000453:epidemiology*; D010966:Plasmodium vivax