Olivier Bouaziz1, David Courtin2,3, Gilles Cottrell2,3,4, Jacqueline Milet2,3, Gregory Nuel5, André Garcia2,3,4. 1. Laboratoire MAP5, Université Paris Descartes et CNRS, Sorbonne Paris Cité, France. 2. Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, UMR216 MERIT, Mère et enfant face aux infections tropicales, France. 3. Faculté de Pharmacie, Université Paris Descartes, Sorbonne Paris Cité, France. 4. IRD, UMR 216, Centre d'Etude et de Recherche sur le Paludisme Associé à la Grossesse et à l'Enfance (CERPAGE), Faculté des Sciences de la Santé, Cotonou, Bénin. 5. Laboratoire de Probabilités et Modèles Aléatoires/Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France.
Abstract
Background: Children born to mothers with placental malaria (PM) have been described as more susceptible to the occurrence of a first malaria infection. However, whether or not these children remain more at risk during infancy has never been explored. We aimed to determine if children born to mothers with PM are more susceptible to malaria and remain at higher risk between birth and 18 months. Methods: Five hundred fifty children were followed up weekly with control of temperature and, if >37.5°C, both a rapid diagnostic test for malaria and a thick blood smear were performed. Taking into account environmental risk of infection, the relationship between occurrences of malaria attacks from birth to 18 months was modeled using Cox models for recurrent events. Results: PM is not associated with an overall susceptibility to malaria but only with the delay of occurrence of the first malaria attack. Children born from mothers with PM tend to have an increased risk for the first malaria attack (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.33; P = .048) but not for subsequent ones (HR = 0.9; P = .46). Children who experienced 1 malaria attack were strongly at risk to develop subsequent infections independent of placental infection and environmental exposure. Conclusions: These results are consistent with the existence of an individual susceptibility to malaria unrelated to PM. From a public health point of view, protecting children born to infected placenta remains a priority, but seems insufficient to account for other frail children for whom a biomarker of frailty needs to be found.
Background: Children born to mothers with placental malaria (PM) have been described as more susceptible to the occurrence of a first malaria infection. However, whether or not these children remain more at risk during infancy has never been explored. We aimed to determine if children born to mothers with PM are more susceptible to malaria and remain at higher risk between birth and 18 months. Methods: Five hundred fifty children were followed up weekly with control of temperature and, if >37.5°C, both a rapid diagnostic test for malaria and a thick blood smear were performed. Taking into account environmental risk of infection, the relationship between occurrences of malaria attacks from birth to 18 months was modeled using Cox models for recurrent events. Results: PM is not associated with an overall susceptibility to malaria but only with the delay of occurrence of the first malaria attack. Children born from mothers with PM tend to have an increased risk for the first malaria attack (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.33; P = .048) but not for subsequent ones (HR = 0.9; P = .46). Children who experienced 1 malaria attack were strongly at risk to develop subsequent infections independent of placental infection and environmental exposure. Conclusions: These results are consistent with the existence of an individual susceptibility to malaria unrelated to PM. From a public health point of view, protecting childrenborn to infected placenta remains a priority, but seems insufficient to account for other frail children for whom a biomarker of frailty needs to be found.
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