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Cited by 369Malaria Research and ControlMathematical and Theoretical Epidemiology and Ecology ModelsBird parasitology and diseases

The entomological inoculation rate and Plasmodium falciparum infection in African children

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Smith, D. L., Dushoff, J., Snow, R. W., Hay, S. I.·2005·Nature
DOI 10.1038/nature04024PMC PMC3128496
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Abstract

Malaria is an important cause of global morbidity and mortality. The fact that some people are bitten more often than others has a large effect on the relationship between risk factors and prevalence of vector-borne diseases. Here we develop a mathematical framework that allows us to estimate the heterogeneity of infection rates from the relationship between rates of infectious bites and community prevalence. We apply this framework to a large, published data set that combines malaria measurements from more than 90 communities. We find strong evidence that heterogeneous biting or heterogeneous susceptibility to infection are important and pervasive factors determining the prevalence of infection: 20% of people receive 80% of all infections. We also find that individual infections last about six months on average, per infectious bite, and children who clear infections are not immune to new infections. The results have important implications for public health interventions: the success of malaria control will depend heavily on whether efforts are targeted at those who are most at risk of infection.

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  • Heterogeneous biting is an empirical fact that a small fraction of the vertebrate population tends to supply most of the blood meals for mosquitoes.

    “Heterogeneous biting, a name for the empirical fact that a small fraction of the vertebrate population tends to supply most of the blood meals for mosquitoes, is one factor that could explain what appears to be inefficient transmission”

    From Recasting the theory of mosquito-borne pathogen transmission dynamics and control (2014) · cites this paper as [79]

    The passage labeled Abstract reports a Tanzanian study in which 20% of people received 80% of mosquito bites, and says that some people are bitten more often than others. It does not establish that this pattern generally holds across vertebrate populations or that those populations supply most mosquito blood meals. (LLM, conf=0.85)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Heterogeneous biting could explain inefficient transmission because infectious mosquito bites are redistributed in a way that tends to reduce the number of unique individuals who would be infected.

    “Heterogeneous biting, a name for the empirical fact that a small fraction of the vertebrate population tends to supply most of the blood meals for mosquitoes, is one factor that could explain what appears to be inefficient transmission because infectious mosquito bites are redistributed in a way that tends to reduce the number of unique individuals who would be infected.33,72,79,87,90”

    From Recasting the theory of mosquito-borne pathogen transmission dynamics and control (2014) · cites this paper as [79]

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Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. [16]Hethcote HW Yorke JA Lecture Notes in Biomathematics 1984 Vol. 56 1 105 Springer Berlin
  2. [28]Wilson D. Bagster Rural hyperendemic malaria in Tanganyika Territory Trans. R. Soc. Trop. Med. Hyg 1936 29 583 618 14007327

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Authors
Smith, D. L., Dushoff, J., Snow, R. W., & Hay, S. I.
Affiliations
  • National Institutes of Health (US)
  • John Radcliffe Hospital (GB)
  • Kenya Medical Research Institute (KE)
Corresponding author
Smith, D. L.
ORCID
Venue
Nature
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2005-11-24
Volume
438
Issue
7067
Pages
492-495
ISSN
  • 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
  • 1476-4687
DOI
10.1038/nature04024
PMC
PMC3128496
OpenAlex
W1985149691
Cited by
369
References
32
Citations by year
2026: 5 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 17 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 19 · 2017: 10 · 2016: 18 · 2015: 25 · 2014: 23 · 2013: 30 · 2012: 33
FWCI
15.72
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Nature (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
Funders
Wellcome Trust (069045, 058992)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Malaria Research and Control
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Mathematical and Theoretical Epidemiology and Ecology Models
  • Life Sciences › Immunology and Microbiology › Parasitology › Bird parasitology and diseases
Keywords
Plasmodium falciparum, malaria, entomological inoculation rate, parasite clearance, reinfection, infection prevalence, children, vector-borne transmission
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Africa, Animals, Bites and Stings, Child, Disease Susceptibility, Humans, Insect Vectors, Models, Biological, Culicidae, Plasmodium falciparum, Sensitivity and Specificity, Prevalence, Malaria, Falciparum, Age Distribution

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