The Burden of Malaria in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Citation

Deutsch-Feldman, Molly; Parr, Jonathan B.; Keeler, Corinna; Brazeau, Nicholas F.; Goel, Varun; Emch, Michael; Edwards, Jessie K.; Kashamuka, Melchior; Tshefu, Antoinette K.; & Meshnick, Steven R. (2021). The Burden of Malaria in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Journal of Infectious Diseases, 223(11), 1948-1952. PMCID: PMC8176632

Abstract

Despite evidence that older children and adolescents bear the highest burden of malaria, large malaria surveys focus on younger children. We used polymerase chain reaction data from the 2013–2014 Demographic and Health Survey in the Democratic Republic of Congo (including children aged <5 years and adults aged ≥15 years) and a longitudinal study in Kinshasa Province (participants aged 6 months to 98 years) to estimate malaria prevalence across age strata. We fit linear models and estimated prevalences for each age category; adolescents aged 10–14 years had the highest prevalence. We estimate approximately 26 million polymerase chain reaction–detectable infections nationally. Adolescents and older children should be included in surveillance studies.

URL

https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiaa650

Reference Type

Journal Article

Article Type

Brief Report

Year Published

2021

Journal Title

Journal of Infectious Diseases

Author(s)

Deutsch-Feldman, Molly
Parr, Jonathan B.
Keeler, Corinna
Brazeau, Nicholas F.
Goel, Varun
Emch, Michael
Edwards, Jessie K.
Kashamuka, Melchior
Tshefu, Antoinette K.
Meshnick, Steven R.

PMCID

PMC8176632

Data Set/Study

The DRC Health Monitoring Information System
Demographic and Health Survey (DHS)

Continent/Country

Democratic Republic of Congo