Skip to main content

Table 2 Definitions used in this study

From: Mapping transmission foci to eliminate malaria in the People’s Republic of China, 2010–2015: a retrospective analysis

Type of malaria

Description

Clinically diagnosed case

An individual with malaria-related symptoms (fever [axillary temperature ≥ 37.5 °C], chills, severe malaise, headache, or vomiting) at the time of examination.

Laboratory-diagnosed case

A clinical case confirmed by microscopy, polymerase chain reaction, or rapid diagnostic tests in the laboratory.

Indigenous case

A case contracted locally with no evidence of importation and no direct link to transmission from an imported case. In this study, an indigenous case refers to malaria acquired by mosquito transmission in China.

Imported case

A malaria case or infection in which the infection was acquired outside the area in which it was diagnosed. Here, it refers to the patient who acquired the illness from a known malaria-prevalent region outside China.

Induced case

A case in which the origin of the illness can be traced to a blood transfusion or other form of parenteral inoculation of the parasite but not to transmission by a natural mosquito-borne inoculation.

Introduced case

A case contracted locally, with strong epidemiological evidence linking it directly to a known imported case (first-generation local transmission).

Recrudescent case

Recurrence of asexual parasitemia of the same genotype(s) that caused the original illness, due to incomplete clearance of asexual parasites after antimalarial treatment.

Death from malaria

Patient with signs and symptoms of complicated malaria, with confirmed diagnosis of P. falciparum (or P. vivax) or associated infection.

Focus

A defined and circumscribed area situated in a currently or formerly malarious area that contains the epidemiological and ecological factors necessary for malaria transmission.

Reactive case detection

A process that involves an active response after the identification of a local or imported case in a receptive area where the transmission intensity is low or assumed to be interrupted.