Addressing Asymptomatic Plasmodium Reservoirs to Accelerate Malaria Elimination and Eradication in Rwanda.

The investigators believe that to effectively achieve malaria elimination in Rwanda, it is critical to target the human reservoirs of Plasmodium falciparum using local and readily available Artemisia tea. Asymptomatic infections detectable by PCR are important reservoirs because they often persist for months and harbor gametocytes, the parasite stage infectious to mosquitoes. Lessons learnt from this study will be of critical importance for health decision makers with regard to potential malaria control. MSc and PhD students will be trained and the impact of this research project will be enormous on the socioeconomic transformation of Rwanda.