{"doi":"10.1101/2025.03.24.25324523","title":"Distribution of non-falciparum malaria among symptomatic malaria patients in Dschang, West Region of Cameroon","abstract":"Abstract Background Malaria is a vector-borne parasitic disease that continues to be a global public health threat. Five different species of the genus Plasmodium ( P. falciparum, P. malariae, P. ovale curtisi, P. ovale wallikeri , and P. vivax) cause malaria in Sub-Saharan Africa. Previous cross-sectional surveys from 2013 and 2017 indicated the circulation of P. vivax in the West region of Cameroon, prompting an investigation into the prevalence of all non-falciparum malaria parasite species in this region. Methods A cross-sectional facility-based study recruited 431 clinically suspected cases of malaria from three health centres in the West region of Cameroon in 2020. Socio-demographic, clinical data, and dried blood spots (DBS) were collected from all consenting patients. Parasite DNA was extracted from DBS for real-time PCR amplification of species-specific Plasmodium 18S rRNA for P. falciparum, P. ovale, P. malariae, and P. vivax . In addition, P. ovale was further sub-classified into P. ovale curtisi or P. ovale wallikeri . The prevalence of different species was measured. Results Among the 431 samples, the overall malaria prevalence was 54.8% (236/431). Of these, 49.9% were infected with P. falciparum , 4% with P. ovale , and 0.9% with P. malariae . No P. vivax was detected. Mixed infections were common, with 3.5% of the infections harbouring more than one Plasmodium species. A total of 5 P. ovale and 1 P. malariae mono-infections were detected. Of the 17 P. ovale infections, 12 were successfully genotyped, with 6 P. ovale curtisi , 3 P. ovale wallikeri, and 3 mixture of the species. Conclusions While falciparum remains the dominant malaria parasite species among acute febrile illness cases, non-falciparum malaria is also commonly found in Dschang, both as a co-infection with P. falciparum and as mono-infections. Both subspecies of P. ovale are present in the region. Continued monitoring of non-falciparum species is needed for understanding malaria burden in West Cameroon.","journal":"medRxiv","year":2025,"id":554963,"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":5,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.96,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1143719,"name":"Samuel White","orcid":"0009-0006-1351-1020","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1081719,"name":"Varun R. Potlapalli","orcid":"0009-0001-0069-1353","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1453257,"name":"Eva Mai Keming","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":647357,"name":"Meredith Muller","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1453258,"name":"Darlin B. Kaunda","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":527805,"name":"Oksana Kharabora","orcid":null,"position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":382460,"name":"Rhoel R. Dinglasan","orcid":"0000-0001-5433-8179","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":270623,"name":"Jonathan B. Parr","orcid":"0000-0002-4465-9830","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1452796,"name":"Tume Christopher","orcid":"0000-0001-6431-9641","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":428587,"name":"Jessica T. Lin","orcid":"0000-0002-4516-723X","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":270632,"name":"Jonathan J. Juliano","orcid":"0000-0002-0591-0850","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1061560,"name":"Innocent Mbulli Ali","orcid":"0000-0002-1112-6376","position":12,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1375816,"name":"Valery P. K. Tchuenkam","orcid":"0000-0003-0638-5573","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":37,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:54:54.542303Z","pmid":"40196244","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":[]}