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An increase in local malaria cases in southeastern Brazil, where malaria was thought to have been eliminated long ago, prompted a molecular epidemiological investigation. For the study, researchers identified persons diagnosed with vivax malaria in 2015 and 2016 after exposures in the Rio de Janeiro Atlantic Forest and developed a molecular assay based on the parasite mitochondrial genome to distinguish between Plasmodium vivax and Plasmodium simium.
Of 33 human specimens, 28 contained the same two single-nucleotide polymorphisms that indicate P. simium, also found in local howler monkeys. Among 39 autochthonous malaria cases with follow-up (mean age, 44 years; 79% male), all had fever, but none was hospitalized, and all recovered completely…