Wiki site of the practical exercise of the V Southern-Summer School on Mathematical Biology.

Here you will find the exercise assignment and the group's products.

If you are a group member login to edit this page, create new pages from it, and upload files.

Malaria eradication has been the target of several concerted global efforts, with varying degrees of success. An aspect of the disease that makes such a goal harder to achieve are the so called asymptomatic cases, in which individuals do not present clinical symptoms, but carry and transmit the parasite nonetheless. If only symptomatic individuals are treated, a reservoir of infected hosts could maintain malaria transmission going.

Asymptomatic malaria is common in areas of high transmission of Plasmodium falciparum (the most studied, and virulent, malaria parasite species). Plasmodium vivax, on the other hand, causes asymptomatic cases even in areas of low transmission. Moreover, P. vivax may develop resting stages in the liver, which can cause relapses - the reappearance of the infection weeks or months after exposure or even recovery.

Develop and analyze a mathematical model for malaria transmission and control that takes into account asymptomatic cases and, optionally, relapse infection, in the case of vivax malaria.

• Try to keep the model as simple as possible.
• Malaria is a vector-borne disease, but is it always necessary to take the vectors into account in your models?
• Is it possible, with the phenomena above, that malaria persists in an area where, once eradicated, it would be unable to spread again?

• Laishram et al. (2012) The complexities of malaria disease manifestations with a focus on asymptomatic malaria Malaria Journal 11:29 link
• Mueller et al. (2009) Key gaps in the knowledge of Plasmodium vivax, a neglected human malaria parasite The Lancet infectious diseases 9:9 p 555-566 link
• Alves et al. (2005) Asymptomatic Carriers of Plasmodium spp. as Infection Source for Malaria Vector Mosquitoes in the Brazilian Amazon Journal of Medical Entomology 42(5):777-779 link