Discussion

It has traditionally been assumed that malaria transmission depends on the on the presence/absence of infectious parasite in hosts or vectors and not the number of parasites harboured. This talk outlines the growing body of evidence which suggests parasite density is important in both human-to-mosquito and mosquito-to-human transmission and that density-dependent processes increase the resilience of the disease to control interventions. Using data from experimental infectious of human and mice it will investigate how parasite density influences the effectiveness of pre-erythrocytic and transmission blocking malaria vaccines currently under development. The epidemiological importance of parasite density shall be assessed to see how it will change the way we measure transmission and target malaria elimination.