Age-structured gametocyte allocation links immunity to epidemiology in malaria parasites

Malaria Journal

Table 3 Age-specific gametocyte densities with measures of transmission success in urban Cameroon [15].

	Gametocyte density
age group	N	Geometric mean/μ l (± CI_95%)	Normalized _95%Confidence Intervals	Standardized Morisita Index	Variance/mean	Mean proportion of mosquitoes infected ± s.e. (n)	Proportional contribution to human infectious reservoir
5–10	26	78.2 (± 51.2)	1.00	0.518	129.7	0.2 ± 0.05 (17)	0.23
11–14	24	118.7 (± 119.8)	2.34	0.536	369.6	0.16 ± 0.04 (15)	0.17
15–20	26	107.2 (± 93.4)	1.82	0.528	290.0	0.24 ± 0.04 (14)	0.22
21–25	33	76.5 (± 52.4)	1.02	0.519	168.1	0.21 ± 0.05 (24)	0.26
25+	29	48.9 (± 59.4)	1.16	0.539	233.6	0.12 ± 0.03 (16)	0.11

Differences in the upper and lower 95% confidence intervals are normalized by dividing by the lowest value. The proportional contribution to the infectious reservoir is the proportion of an age group that are infectious to mosquitoes multiplied by the proportion of mosquitoes that become infected. In bold, values for the least dispersed gametocyte densities and the highest mosquito infection rates; in italics the highest gametocyte densities. N is the number of individuals with gametocyte parasites and n is the number of individuals infecting mosquitoes. No age was recorded for 4 of the 90 urban individuals infecting mosquitoes.

ISSN: 1475-2875