Colombia

We discuss how these research results and diverse knowledge-based tools, including mathematical explanatory models and geographical information systems, are being used by the Colombian health authorities as an end-to-end program and early warning system (EWS) for malaria prevention and surveillance countrywide.

The aim of the study was to measure the prevalence of congenital malaria in an endemic Colombian region and to determine some of its characteristics.

We designed a study to compare the technical and the operational-economical performances of light microscopy (LM), nested polymerase chain reaction (nPCR), and histopathology (HP).

Anopheles mosquitoes are routinely identified using morphological characters of the female that often lead to misidentification due to interspecies similarity and intraspecies variability.

To determine possible geographic differences and their effects on the performance of RDTs, 22 blood samples from patients with P. falciparum malaria from Tumaco and Buenaventura, Colombia were assessed by measurement of HRP2 concentration by an HRP2 enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, RDTs, and thick blood smear.

The assignment analyses showed two incompletely isolated gene pools separated by the Eastern Andean cordillera. However, other possible geographical barriers (rivers and other mountains) did not play any role in the moderate genetic heterogeneity found among these populations (FST = 0.069).

Sexual and asexual parasite dynamics were thus evaluated in patients involved in antimalarial drug efficacy studies by using combined treatment with and without artemisinin derivatives for treating uncomplicated acute Plasmodium falciparum malaria in Antioquia, Colombia.

This study was conducted to test genetic variation of An. darlingi at a microgeographic scale (approximately 100 km) from localities in Córdoba and Antioquia states, in western Colombia, to better understand the potential contribution of population genetics to local malaria control programs.

Assessment of the genetic diversity of Plasmodium falciparum in 110 Colombian isolates revealed that nearly all the parasites in the 97 isolates collected in endemic regions west of the Andes shared the same Pfmsp1 block 2 MAD20-type allelic variant, despite showing high diversity for other genetical markers.

Since micronutrient deficiencies are highly prevalent in malaria-endemic areas and appear to contribute to anemia etiology, we conducted a cross-sectional study in Tumaco, Colombia, to examine the associations between plasma vitamin B12 or erythrocyte folate concentrations and hemoglobin (Hb) among 96 adults with predominantly Plasmodium falciparum malaria.