Quantification of parasite clearance in Plasmodium knowlesi infections

Published: February 14, 2023

Citation

T. Thurai Rathnam, J., Grigg, M.J., Dini, S. et al. Quantification of parasite clearance in Plasmodium knowlesi infections. Malar J 22, 54 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12936-023-04483-9

Abstract

The incidence of zoonotic Plasmodium knowlesi infections in humans is rising in Southeast Asia, leading to clinical studies to monitor the efficacy of anti-malarial treatments for knowlesi malaria. One of the key outcomes of anti-malarial drug efficacy is parasite clearance. For Plasmodium falciparum, parasite clearance is typically estimated using a two-stage method, that involves estimating parasite clearance for individual patients followed by pooling of individual estimates to derive population estimates. An alternative approach is Bayesian hierarchical modelling which simultaneously analyses all parasite-time patient profiles to determine parasite clearance. This study compared these methods for estimating parasite clearance in P. knowlesi treatment efficacy studies, with typically fewer parasite measurements per patient due to high susceptibility to anti-malarials.