Publications by authors named "Sara Lynn Blanken"

Objectives: The number of mosquito bites a person receives determines the risk of acquiring malaria and the likelihood of transmitting infections to mosquitoes. We assessed heterogeneity in biting and associated factors in two settings in Uganda with different endemicity.

Methods: parasites in blood-fed indoor caught mosquitoes were quantified using qPCR targeting the Pf18S rRNA gene.

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Aims: Most human infections with non-typhoid Salmonella (NTS) or Campylobacter are zoonotic in nature and acquired though consumption of contaminated food of mainly animal origin. However, individuals may also acquire salmonellosis or campylobacteriosis through non-foodborne transmission pathways, such as those mediated by the environment. This emphasizes the need to consider both direct and indirect exposure to livestock sources as a possible transmission route for NTS and Campylobacter.

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Background: Plasmodium blood-stage parasites balance asexual multiplication with gametocyte development. Few studies link these dynamics with parasite genetic markers in vivo; even fewer in longitudinally monitored infections. Environmental influences on gametocyte formation, such as mosquito exposure, may influence the parasite's investment in gametocyte production.

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Article Synopsis
  • * Not everyone is equally likely to get bitten by mosquitoes because some people attract them more than others.
  • * Scientists are studying how different human traits affect mosquitoes' biting habits to understand how diseases spread.
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Much of our understanding of malaria transmission comes from mosquito feeding assays using Anopheles mosquitoes from colonies that are well adapted to membrane feeding. This raises the question whether results from colony mosquitoes lead to overestimates of outcomes in wild Anopheles mosquitoes. We successfully established an Anopheles colony using progeny of wild Anopheles gambiae s.

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Tororo District, in Eastern Uganda, experienced a dramatic decline in malaria burden starting in 2014 following the implementation of indoor residual spraying of insecticide (IRS) in the setting of repeated long-lasting insecticide treated nets (LLINs) distribution campaigns. However, in 2020 malaria began to resurge in Tororo following a change in the active ingredient used for IRS. In this study, epidemiological measures of malaria were compared shortly after the resurgence between two parishes in Tororo District (Kayoro and Osukuru) and one contiguous parish in Busia District (Buteba), where IRS has never been implemented.

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Achieving malaria elimination requires a better understanding of the transmissibility of human infections in different transmission settings. This study aimed to characterize the human infectious reservoir in a high endemicity setting in eastern Uganda, using gametocyte quantification and mosquito feeding assays. In asymptomatic infections, gametocyte densities were positively associated with the proportion of infected mosquitoes (β = 1.

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