A theoretical framework for the immunoepidemiology of Plasmodium falciparum malaria

Abstract

Molecular genetic analyses of P. falciparum have led to the cloning and sequencing of a number of antigens that are potential candidates for vaccination against malaria. Seroepidemiological studies in endemic areas have attempted to assess the relative importance of these antigens in protection against malaria. In this paper, we attempt to evaluate the relative contributions of conserved and strain‐specific immune responses by modelling their influence of age‐specific patterns of infection and disease. The modelling exercises in this paper clearly demonstrate that the observed patterns of age‐prevalence are best explained by proposing that the accumulation to a threshold of an immune respons..