; and separately, malaria parasites resistant to diagnostic tests had emerged in the Horn of Africa.
The standard method to diagnose malaria in Africa is through rapid diagnostic tests that detect specific parasite proteins in the blood that are highly expressed. The tests can confirm malaria even if the patient is asymptomatic. The parasites lacking the genes for these proteins have evolved to be invisible to the tests.
Led by Bailey, co-director of the Ph.D. program at Brown's Center for Computational Molecular Biology, the scientists used molecular sequencing to assess the prevalence of mutations that confer resistance to artemisinin. Abebe Fola, a postdoctoral researcher in Bailey's lab, was instrumental in this work and is the first author of the paper.
The scientists concluded that close monitoring of the spread of combined drug- and diagnostic-resistantis needed, noting that improved understanding of how these mutations emerge, interact and spread is critical to the success of future malaria control and elimination efforts across Africa.
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