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Five different species of the genus\n                      <jats:italic>Plasmodium<\/jats:italic>\n                      (\n                      <jats:italic>P. falciparum<\/jats:italic>\n                      ,\n                      <jats:italic>P. malariae, P. ovale curtisi, P. ovale wallikeri,<\/jats:italic>\n                      and\n                      <jats:italic>P. vivax)<\/jats:italic>\n                      cause malaria in Sub-Saharan Africa. Previous cross-sectional surveys from 2013 and 2017 indicated the circulation of\n                      <jats:italic>P. vivax<\/jats:italic>\n                      in the West region of Cameroon, prompting an investigation into the prevalence of all falciparum and non-falciparum malaria parasite species in this region.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec id=\"sec002\">\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      A cross-sectional facility-based study targeting both adult and children in which we recruited 431 clinically suspected cases of malaria from three health centres in the West region of Cameroon in 2020. Socio-demographic, clinical data, and dried blood spots (DBS) were collected from all consenting patients. Parasite DNA was extracted from DBS for real-time PCR amplification of species-specific\n                      <jats:italic>Plasmodium<\/jats:italic>\n                      18S rRNA for\n                      <jats:italic>P. falciparum, P. ovale, P. malariae, and P. vivax<\/jats:italic>\n                      . In addition,\n                      <jats:italic>P. ovale<\/jats:italic>\n                      was further sub-classified into\n                      <jats:italic>P. ovale curtisi<\/jats:italic>\n                      or\n                      <jats:italic>P. ovale wallikeri<\/jats:italic>\n                      using qPCR. The prevalence of different species was measured.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec id=\"sec003\">\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      Among the 431 samples, the overall malaria prevalence was 54.8% [95% CI: 50.1\u201359.8] (236\/431). Of these, 53.4% [95% CI: 48.7\u201358.5] were infected with\n                      <jats:italic>P. falciparum<\/jats:italic>\n                      , 4% [95%CI: 2.2\u20135.6] with\n                      <jats:italic>P. ovale<\/jats:italic>\n                      , and 0.9% [95% CI: 0.2\u20131.7] with\n                      <jats:italic>P. malariae<\/jats:italic>\n                      . No\n                      <jats:italic>P. vivax<\/jats:italic>\n                      was detected. Mixed infections were common, with 8.9% of the infections harbouring more than one\n                      <jats:italic>Plasmodium<\/jats:italic>\n                      species. A total of 5\n                      <jats:italic>P. ovale<\/jats:italic>\n                      and 1\n                      <jats:italic>P. malariae<\/jats:italic>\n                      mono-infections were detected. Of the 17\n                      <jats:italic>P. ovale<\/jats:italic>\n                      infections, 12 were successfully genotyped, with 6\n                      <jats:italic>P. ovale curtisi<\/jats:italic>\n                      , 3\n                      <jats:italic>P. ovale<\/jats:italic>\n                      wallikeri, and 3 a mixture of the species.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec id=\"sec004\">\n                    <jats:title>Conclusions<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      While falciparum remains the dominant malaria parasite species among acute febrile illness cases, non-falciparum malaria is also commonly found in Dschang, both as a co-infection with\n                      <jats:italic>P. falciparum<\/jats:italic>\n                      and as mono-infections. Both subspecies of\n                      <jats:italic>P. ovale<\/jats:italic>\n                      are present in the region. Continued monitoring of non-falciparum species is needed for understanding malaria burden in West Cameroon.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0340824","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,24]],"date-time":"2026-02-24T18:26:57Z","timestamp":1771957617000},"page":"e0340824","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.corrections_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Distribution of falciparum and non-falciparum malaria among symptomatic malaria patients in Dschang, West Region of Cameroon"],"prefix":"10.1371","volume":"21","author":[{"given":"Pacome V. 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