Fig. 1

Schematic representation of the hypothetic origins of American P. vivax. The main routes of the transatlantic slave trades (in green), major European colonization routes between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries (in blue), and Asian migration waves (in brown-yellow) are indicated. When the migration route and origin have been confirmed by genetic studies, arrows indicate the direction of the transfer. The geographic incidence of P. vivax is indicated in dark grey when high and in light blue when sporadic, based on data from Battle et al. [5] for high-transmission regions and on data from Twohig et al. [71] for low-transmission regions in Africa (i.e. reports of all P. vivax occurrences in Africa). Map modified from Rougeron et al. [11]