Plasmodium vivax malaria in Sri Lanka: transmission, disease and immunity.

We have established a study site in a malaria endemic region around Kataragama in the south of Sri Lanka. A population of about 3,000 individuals in a group of villages around Kataragama have been provided with access to a small field clinic enabling us to monitor aspects of malarial infection under conditions of natural transmission. At the present time, both Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax are prevalent to a similar degree although prior to about five years ago P. falciparum had been virtually absent for most of the previous ten years.