{"doi":"10.1093/infdis/jiaa478","title":"Under the Radar: Epidemiology of <i>Plasmodium ovale</i> in the Democratic Republic of the Congo","abstract":"BACKGROUND: Plasmodium ovale is an understudied malaria species prevalent throughout much of sub-Saharan Africa. Little is known about the distribution of ovale malaria and risk factors for infection in areas of high malaria endemicity. METHODS: Using the 2013 Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) Demographic and Health Survey, we conducted a risk factor analysis for P. ovale infections. We evaluated geographic clustering of infections and speciated to P. ovale curtisi and P. ovale wallikeri through deep sequencing. RESULTS: Of 18 149 adults tested, we detected 143 prevalent P. ovale infections (prevalence estimate 0.8%; 95% confidence interval [CI], .59%-.98%). Prevalence ratios (PR) for significant risk factors were: male sex PR = 2.12 (95% CI, 1.38-3.26), coprevalent P. falciparum PR = 3.52 (95% CI, 2.06-5.99), and rural residence PR = 2.19 (95% CI, 1.31-3.66). P. ovale was broadly distributed throughout the DRC; an elevated cluster of infections was detected in the south-central region. Speciation revealed P. ovale curtisi and P. ovale wallikeri circulating throughout the country. CONCLUSIONS: P. ovale persists broadly in the DRC, a high malaria burden country. For successful elimination of all malaria species, P. ovale needs to be on the radar of malaria control programs.","journal":"The Journal of Infectious Diseases","year":2020,"id":66462,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":51,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.942,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":270617,"name":"Nicholas F. Brazeau","orcid":"0000-0003-3976-7965","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":351918,"name":"Corinna Keeler","orcid":"0000-0002-3445-6589","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":272755,"name":"Melchior Kashamuka Mwandagalirwa","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":352514,"name":"Antoinette K. Tshefu","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":270632,"name":"Jonathan J. Juliano","orcid":"0000-0002-0591-0850","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":272760,"name":"Steven R. Meshnick","orcid":null,"position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":351917,"name":"Cedar L. Mitchell","orcid":"0000-0002-4811-2074","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":41,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T21:14:22.090509Z","pmid":"32766832","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}