Unraveling the contribution of Plasmodium vivax metapopulation on the persistence of malaria transmission in the Peruvian Amazon
PhD summary
Despite adequate coverage of malaria intervention strategies in rural, remote areas, the elimination efforts vanished after some months, and residual malaria persists. Malaria importation might be playing a significant role in the maintenance of local transmission. From a fundamental perspective, this scenario reflects the metapopulation dynamics theory, where the parasite population's subdivisions are geographically dispersed but with limited interaction between the components. The metapopulations can experience extinction events by evolutionary events and recolonization by individuals from other populations. Related to metapopulation dynamics, human mobility facilitates parasites importation and further recolonization of areas where the parasite population was (nearly) extinct due to interventions. The present study aims to study the contribution of Plasmodium vivax metapopulation in the burden of residual malaria in the Peruvian Amazon. We will unravel human mobility's role in the recolonization event by integrating epidemiological and travel data with the parasite population genetics. Our project is the first study to address P. vivax metapopulations as a significant challenge for elimination and seeks to develop a genomics platform that distinguishes among highly related parasites. The expected findings could provide crucial insights about a better design of intervention strategies.