TY - JOUR TI - Asymptomatic Malaria Infections in an Endemic City of Honduras AU - Maradiaga,Alejandra AU - García, Joel S. AU - Mejía-Torres, Rosa E. AU - Escober, Lenin AU - Matamoros, Jessia AU - Enríquez,Lourdes AU - Fontecha,Gustavo A. PY - 2016/07/18 AB - Background: This study aimed at determining the prevalence of asymptomatic cases of malaria in Puerto Lempira, the municipality with the highest morbidity in Honduras. Methods and findings: Capillary blood was collected from 1,899 participants. All samples were analyzed through microscopy and a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique based on the amplification of species-specific repetitive sequences. The molecular approach was more sensitive than microscopy to detect asymptomatic infections (1.1% vs. 0.16%). Conclusions: Although the prevalence of asymptomatic malaria was low in this population, new strategies such as active case detection and PCR-based surveys could become useful tools for countries aspiring to initiate the pre-elimination phase of malaria in the Americas. KW - DB - SAGE Publishing DP - SAGE Publishing LA - English SP - 37 EP - 41 JO - Human Parasitic Diseases VL - 8 IS - 5781-HPD-Asymptomatic-Malaria-Infections-in-an-Endemic-City-of-Honduras.pdf SN - UR - http://insights.sagepub.com/asymptomatic-malaria-infections-in-an-endemic-city-of-honduras-article-a5781 L1 - http://insights.sagepub.com/redirect_file.php?fileId=7682&filename=5781-HPD-Asymptomatic-Malaria-Infections-in-an-Endemic-City-of-Honduras.pdf&fileType=pdf DO - 10.4137/HPD.S40183 ER -