Plasmodium spp. in macaques, Macaca fascicularis, in Malaysia, and their potential role in zoonotic malaria transmission.

Macaques, Macaca fascicularis, are a known reservoir of Plasmodium knowlesi, the agent of simian malaria which is the predominant zoonotic species affecting humans in Malaysia and other Southeast Asian countries. Recently, a naturally acquired human infection of another simian malaria parasite, P. cynomolgi has been reported.

Correction to: Evidence of asymptomatic submicroscopic malaria in low transmission areas in Belaga district, Kapit division, Sarawak, Malaysia.

Please note that an author has been erroneously omitted from the author list of the published article [1].

Evidence of asymptomatic submicroscopic malaria in low transmission areas in Belaga district, Kapit division, Sarawak, Malaysia.

Background: Malaysia has declared its aim to eliminate malaria with a goal of achieving zero local transmission by the year 2020. However, targeting the human reservoir of infection, including those with asymptomatic infection is required to achieve malaria elimination. Diagnosing asymptomatic malaria is not as straightforward due to the obvious lack of clinical manifestations and often subpatent level of parasites.

Plasmodium knowlesi in humans, macaques and mosquitoes in peninsular Malaysia.

Background: Since a large focus of human infection with Plasmodium knowlesi, a simian malaria parasite naturally found in long-tailed and pig tailed macaques, was reported in Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo, it was pertinent to study the situation in peninsular Malaysia. A study was thus initiated to screen human cases of Plasmodium malariae using molecular techniques, to determine the presence of P. knowlesi in non- human primates and to elucidate its vectors.