title: Assessing the infectious reservoir of falciparum malaria: past and future.
abstract: Renewed interest in malaria eradication has placed greater emphasis on the development of tools to interrupt Plasmodium transmission, such as transmission-blocking vaccines. However, effective deployment of such tools is likely to depend on improving our understanding of which individuals transmit infections to mosquitoes. To date, only a handful of studies have directly determined the infectiousness of individuals in endemic populations. Here we review these studies and their relative merits. We also highlight factors influencing transmission potential that are not normally considered: the duration of human infectiousness, frequency of sampling by mosquitoes, and variation in vector competence among different mosquito populations. We argue that more comprehensive xenodiagnostic assessments of infectivity are necessary to accurately quantify the infectious reservoir and better target interventions.
authors.affiliation: Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Will
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Stone
authors.affiliation: London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
authors.forename: Bronner P
authors.initials: BP
authors.lastname: Gonçalves
authors.affiliation: Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands; London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
authors.forename: Teun
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bousema
authors.affiliation: London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK. Electronic address: chris.drakeley@lshtm.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Drakeley
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D009033:Culicidae / Q000469:parasitology; D004197:Disease Reservoirs / Q000469:parasitology*; D006801:Humans; D016778:Malaria, Falciparum / Q000469:parasitology* / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000635:transmission; D010963:Plasmodium falciparum / Q000502:physiology
keywords: Plasmodium falciparum; gametocytes; infectious reservoir; mosquito; transmission blocking