Evidence for transmission of Plasmodium vivax among a Duffy antigen negative population in Western Kenya

Jeffrey R. Ryan, José A. Stoute, Joseph Amon, Raymond F. Dunton, Ramadhan Mtalib, Joseph Koros, Boaz Owour, Shirley Luckhart, Robert A. Wirtz, John W. Barnwell, Ronald Rosenberg

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

179 Scopus citations

Abstract

We present evidence that a parasite with characteristics of Plasmodium vivax is being transmitted among Duffy blood group-negative inhabitants of Kenya. Thirty-two of 4,901 Anopheles gambiae and An. funestus (0.65%) collected in Nyanza Province were ELISA positive for the P. vivax circumsporozoite protein VK 247. AH positives were found late in the rainy season, when An. funestus predominated, and disproportionately many were found at a single village. A P. vivax specific sequence of the SSU rRNA gene was amplified from three of six ELISA-positive mosquitoes. Erythrocytes from 31 children, including 9 microscopically diagnosed as infected with P. vivax, were negative by flow cytometry for the Fy3 or Fy6 epitopes, which indicate Duffy blood group expression. A DNA fragment specific for the C terminus of the gene for P. vivax merozoite surface protein 1 (MSP-1) was amplified from the blood of four of these children and subsequently sequenced from two.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)575-581
Number of pages7
JournalAmerican Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
Volume75
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 2006

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Parasitology
  • Virology
  • Infectious Diseases

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