Figure 5.

Asymptomatic carriage of P. falciparum parasites according to age. Data come from the monthly malaria active detection. Age distribution of symptomatic carriage among positive cases during systematic sampling (black circle) and parasite densities (histograms) in the 541 cases of asymptomatic carriage of P. falciparum observed from February 2003 to June 2005. Prevalence of asymptomatic carriages (grey rhombus) is calculated by the ratio between positive slides for P. falciparum and total number of slides (from active detection cases in the absence of fever). Among the 541 positive slides, 57 (10.53%) had P. falciparum gametocytes (black square). For each sample, the age of the subject used was the age at the time of the blood intake.