LAUSR

Malaria infection prevalence predicts malaria mortality—at least for now Female Anopheles mosquitoes transmit malaria sporozoites to humans in the context of a blood meal. In malaria-endemic areas, most of the ensuing infections are asymptomatic. Some, however, progress to an uncomplicated illness (fever, headache, body aches, and pains). Younger individuals, with less clinical immunity to malaria, are at highest risk of developing severe disease (anemia, cerebral malaria, and/or respiratory distress) and of dying (1). Because the relationship between malaria transmission and malaria mortality is so variable, and because both are challenging to measure, it has remained unclear whether decreases in malaria transmission, resulting from control measures, would actually decrease malaria mortality. On page 926 of this issue, Paton et al. (2) find that the higher the prevalence of malaria infection in a given community, the higher the incidence of severe malaria disease. These findings may be useful in tracking the impact of various malaria control measures over time.