[Estimation of the parasitological incidence and recovery rates of Plasmodium falciparum, P. malariae and P. ovale among children living in a malarial holoendemic zone in Congo].

The incidence and recovery rates of P. falciparum, P. malariae and P. ovale parasitaemia among schoolchildren from a Congolese village where malaria transmission is intense and perennial were studied from longitudinal data. Time intervals between sampling were two days, eight days, two weeks, two months and four months for the different surveys. Values derived from the model of BEKESSY et al. (1976) showed a great range of variation for P. falciparum (daily incidence rate h: 0.0119-0.0529; daily recovery rate r: 0.0043-0.0198) and for P. malariae (h: 0.0053-0.0103; r: 0.0115-0.0428). For P. ovale this model only fitted samples collected with a maximum time interval of eight days (h: 0.0048-0.0058; r: 0.1400-0.1540). Although discrepancies between estimates may be explained in part by differences in malaria transmission, the results indicate that only short time intervals of sampling gave correct estimates of incidence and recovery rates in the population studied. The importance of this parameter has probably been insufficiently considered until now.