The content explains the difficulty in detecting malaria in asymptomatic individuals and the importance of identifying asymptomatic infections for public health. Detecting asymptomatic individuals is difficult as parasite counts can fluctuate and older detection tests are less sensitive. The study conducted in Uganda shows that a daily sampling schedule was comparable to daily testing at detecting infections. Participants were tested for the presence, classification, and densities of Plasmodium ribosomal RNA using dried blood spots. The study suggests that the current method of using single-timepoint tests may miss infections and that serial testing should be considered to accurately determine infection status.
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Classifying the natural history of asymptomatic malaria
