Abstract
Malaria remains a major public health threat in Cameroon, with an estimated 3 million new cases of Plasmodium spp. infections reported each year. The aim of this study was to assess the occurrence of Plasmodium infections in Cameroon in a group of symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals, residents of the town of Mbalmayo, located in the Central Region of Cameroon. Screening was conducted in December 2024 at the Mbalayo District Hospital. This study involved a total of 93 people aged between 1 and 70 years old, who voluntarily agreed to have their blood samples taken and tested for malaria. As part of this study, the demographic variables of the participants were taken, malaria rapid diagnostic tests (mRDTs) were performed, and blood samples were applied to the Whatman FTA cards for further real-time PCR diagnostics. The occurrence of Plasmodium infections in the residents of Mbalmayo differed depending on the diagnostic method used (30.1% with mRDT vs. 60.2% when RT-PCR assays were performed). A total of 55 malaria cases were found to be caused by P. falciparum, while one case was found to be caused by P. vivax. Nearly half of the study participants exhibited no signs or symptoms of malaria, whereas 35.7% reported fever, 17.9% respiratory symptoms, and 10.7% gastrointestinal symptoms. The prevalence of malaria remains high in populations inhabiting the Central Region in Cameroon. P. falciparum is the dominant species in the region. A considerable proportion of infected individuals are asymptomatic, which supports the finding that asymptomatic carriers play a critical role in disease transmission. The differences between the results depending on the diagnostic method used (mRDT vs. RT-PCR) suggest that there is a need to use a combination of different methods for the identification of malaria, especially in cases of low parasitemia.