Simian malaria: a narrative review on emergence, epidemiology and threat to global malaria elimination.

Simian malaria from wild non-human primate populations is increasingly recognised as a public health threat and is now the main cause of human malaria in Malaysia and some regions of Brazil. In 2022, Malaysia became the first country not to achieve malaria elimination due to zoonotic simian malaria. We review the global distribution and drivers of simian malaria and identify priorities for diagnosis, treatment, surveillance, and control. Environmental change is driving closer interactions between humans and wildlife, with malaria parasites from non-human primates spilling over into human populations and human malaria parasites spilling back into wild non-human primate populations. These complex transmission cycles require new molecular and epidemiological approaches to track parasite spread. Current methods of malaria control are ineffective, with wildlife reservoirs and primarily outdoor-biting mosquito vectors urgently requiring the development of novel control strategies. Without these, simian malaria has the potential to undermine malaria elimination globally.

A modified semi-nested multiplex malaria PCR (SnM-PCR) for the identification of the five human Plasmodium species occurring in Southeast Asia.

We have modified an existing semi-nested multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) by adding one Plasmodium knowlesi-specific nested PCR, and validated the latter against laboratory and clinical samples. This new method has the advantage of being relatively affordable in low resource settings while identifying the five human Plasmodium species with a three-step PCR.

Polymerase chain reaction identification of three members of the Anopheles sundaicus (Diptera: Culicidae) complex, malaria vectors in Southeast Asia.

Anopheles sundaicus s.l., a major malaria vector taxon, occurs primarily along coastal areas and on islands in Southeast Asia. Our previous studies using cytochrome oxidase I, cytochrome-b, and internal transcribed spacer 2 markers discriminated three allopatric species: An. sundaicus s.s. in northern Borneo, An. epiroticus in Southeast Asia, and An. sundaicus E on Sumatra and Java, Indonesia. Morphological comparisons of three developmental stages did not reveal unique diagnostic characters that could reliably distinguish the three species. Therefore, we developed a multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay based on two mitochondrial DNA markers to unambiguously identify them. This PCR was tested on 374 specimens from 24 different geographical populations, expanding our knowledge of the distribution of these species.