Distribution of non-falciparum malaria among symptomatic malaria patients in Dschang, West Region of Cameroon.

BACKGROUND

Malaria is a vector-borne parasitic disease that continues to be a global public health threat. Five different species of the genus (, and cause malaria in Sub-Saharan Africa. Previous cross-sectional surveys from 2013 and 2017 indicated the circulation of in the West region of Cameroon, prompting an investigation into the prevalence of all non-falciparum malaria parasite species in this region.

METHODS

A cross-sectional facility-based study recruited 431 clinically suspected cases of malaria from three health centres in the West region of Cameroon in 2020. Socio-demographic, clinical data, and dried blood spots (DBS) were collected from all consenting patients. Parasite DNA was extracted from DBS for real-time PCR amplification of species-specific 18S rRNA for . In addition, was further sub-classified into or . The prevalence of different species was measured.

RESULTS

Among the 431 samples, the overall malaria prevalence was 54.8% (236/431). Of these, 49.9% were infected with , 4% with , and 0.9% with . No was detected. Mixed infections were common, with 3.5% of the infections harbouring more than one species. A total of 5 and 1 monoinfections were detected. Of the 17 infections, 12 were successfully genotyped, with 6 , 3 wallikeri, and 3 mixture of the species.

CONCLUSIONS

While falciparum remains the dominant malaria parasite species among acute febrile illness cases, non-falciparum malaria is also commonly found in Dschang, both as a coinfection with and as mono-infections. Both subspecies of are present in the region. Continued monitoring of non-falciparum species is needed for understanding malaria burden in West Cameroon.