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Volume 20, Number 10—October 2014
Historical Review

Malaria Control and Elimination,1 Venezuela, 1800s–1970s

Sean M. GriffingComments to Author , Leopoldo Villegas, and Venkatachalam Udhayakumar
Author affiliations: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA (S.M. Griffing, V. Udhayakumar); ICF International, Calverton, Maryland, USA (L. Villegas); Centro de Investigación de Campo Dr. Francesco Vitanza, Bolívar, Venezuela (L. Villegas)

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Table

Commonly used malaria terms, Venezuela

Term Definition
Spleen index or spleen rate Point prevalence of persons with a palpably enlarged spleen (splenomegaly), which is strongly associated with malaria in many countries, including India and Venezuela. Although this term is not an exact measurement of malaria infection, it is considered an indicative public health measurement in tropical countries. The reference measurement in Venezuela was 5%, where malaria was not present (1).
Endemicity ratio Lowest spleen index observed in a 5-year period divided by 5, which is the assumed reference value for this index. This ratio was complemented by the ratio of epidemicity, in which the numerator was replaced by the greatest spleen index over a 5-year period (2,4).
Index of infection Prevalence of persons with malaria infection as determined by existing measurements, such as spleen indexes or blood smears.

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References
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1During much of the period reported in this paper, the historically accurate term was eradication.

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