Comparison of parasite sequestration in uncomplicated and severe childhood Plasmodium falciparum malaria.

Objectives: To determine whether sequestration of parasitized red blood cells differs between children with uncomplicated and severe Plasmodium falciparum malaria.

Methods: We quantified circulating-, total- and sequestered-parasite biomass, using a mathematical model based on plasma concentration of P. falciparum histidine rich protein 2, in Gambian children with severe (n = 127) and uncomplicated (n = 169) malaria.

The breadth, but not the magnitude, of circulating memory B cell responses to P. falciparum increases with age/exposure in an area of low transmission.

Background: Malaria caused by Plasmodium falciparum remains a major cause of death in sub-Saharan Africa. Immunity against symptoms of malaria requires repeated exposure, suggesting either that the parasite is poorly immunogenic or that the development of effective immune responses to malaria may be impaired.

Methods: We carried out two age-stratified cross-sectional surveys of anti-malarial humoral immune responses in a Gambian village where P.