Relación entre la tasa de parásitos de la malaria y la interrupción de la transmisión

Abstract

Present methods for assessment of the attack phase of malaria eradication are inadequate, particularly lacking any objective parasitological criteria of success. The most objective of the criteria used has been the absence of infections among infants. This has always been subject to the drawback that it is rarely possible to get enough infants to secure a statistically reliable result. Moreover, all the variants used have been subject to the difficulty that it is impossible to prove a total negative without examination of the entire population, and there has always been uncertainty on the scale of examination which was required for adequacy. The authors have therefore undertaken a careful review of parasitological criteria for the interruption of transmission, with the intention of producing precise and objective criteria from which clear-cut conclusions could be reached on the adequacy of the attack mechanism. In theory the total interruption of transmission should produce readily foreseeable results in terms of the progressive decline of the parasite rate, total absence of fresh infections, and immediate reduction to zero of the parasite rate among infants born after the start of the campaign. However, since it is statistically impossible to prove absolute success which is tolerable for the purposes of eradication, and statistically sound criteria should be set up to enable the