Malaria Resilience in South America: Epidemiology, Vector Biology, and Immunology Insights from the Amazonian International Center of Excellence in Malaria Research Network in Peru and Brazil

Abstract

ABSTRACT. The 1990s saw the rapid reemergence of malaria in Amazonia, where it remains an important public health priority in South America. The Amazonian International Center of Excellence in Malaria Research (ICEMR) was designed to take a multidisciplinary approach toward identifying novel malaria control and elimination strategies. Based on geographically and epidemiologically distinct sites in the Northeastern Peruvian and Western Brazilian Amazon regions, synergistic projects integrate malaria epidemiology, vector biology, and immunology. The Amazonian ICEMR’s overarching goal is to understand how human behavior and other sociodemographic features of human reservoirs of transmission—predominantly asymptomatically parasitemic people—interact with the major Amazonian malaria vector, Nyssorhynchus (formerly Anopheles) darlingi, and with human immune responses to maintain malaria resilience and continued endemicity in a hypoendemic setting. Here, we will review Amazonian ICEMR’s achievements on the synergies among malaria epidemiology, Plasmodium-vector interactions, and immune response, and how those provide a roadmap for further research, and, most importantly, point toward how to achieve malaria control and elimination in the Americas.

Population genomic evidence of structured and connected Plasmodium vivax populations under host selection in Latin America

“…Indeed, the Amazon basin is a vast territory of tropical rainforest encompassing several countries and including large regions of indigenous territories intersected by numerous rivers and scattered cities and villages that offer natural barriers contributing to the observed subpopulation structure (Siqueira et al., 2016 ). On the other hand, connectivity and admixtures within this region in all likelihood is due to patterns of human mobility, which are closely related to occupational patterns like logging and illegal gold mining (Arisco et al., 2021 ; Castro et al., 2019 ; de Castro et al., 2006 ; Pacheco et al., 2019 ; Rosas‐Aguirre et al., 2016 ; Torres et al., 2022 ). In addition, transmission of malaria (and gene flow) across large geographic distances is facilitated by the large human reservoir of asymptomatic and low‐density P. vivax infections characteristic for this region (de Oliveira et al., 2020 ; Ferreira et al., 2022 ) as well as the dormant reservoir of hypnozoites characteristic for P. vivax in general (White et al., 2014 ).…”

Application of a targeted amplicon sequencing panel to screen for insecticide resistance mutations in Anopheles darlingi populations from Brazil

“…However, environmental changes produced by humans have created permanently available larval habitats, thereby supporting perennial malaria transmission 12,13 . These challenges represent a clear risk to Brazil to accomplish its National Elimination plan and achieve the World Health Organization (WHO) goal of reducing malaria cases by 90% within the next 7 years 14 .…”

Plasmodium vivax: the potential obstacles it presents to malaria elimination and eradication

“…P. vivax causes the majority of cases reported in Venezuela (76%), compared to P. falciparum (17.7%) and mixed P. vivax / P. falciparum infections (6%) and P. malariae (1%) [ 77 ]. Currently, the Amazon Basin, which encompasses nine South American nations, is the site of the great majority of malaria cases reported [ 187 ]. This is mostly linked to deforestation, ecological changes, and extensive human movement connected to a continuing process of land occupation [ 102 ].…”