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Volume 31, Number 9—September 2025

Dispatch

Imported Malaria and Congenital Acquisition in Infant, Portugal, 2024

Inês Lopes, Joana Dias, Edvaldo Das Neves, Maria Morais, Ana Santos-Reis, Ana M. Garcia, Luis Varandas1, and Dinora Lopes1Comments to Author 
Author affiliation: Global Health and Tropical Medicine, Associate Laboratory in Translation and Innovation Towards Global Health, Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal (I. Lopes, E. Das Neves, A. Santos-Reis, L. Varandas, D. Lopes); Unidade Local de Saúde São José, Lisbon (J. Dias); Hospital of Vila Franca de Xira, Vila Franca de Xira, Portugal (M. Morais); Unidade Local de Saúde São José EPE Centro de Investigação, Lisbon (A.M. Garcia, L. Varandas)

Main Article

Table 2

Diagnostic tools for Plasmodium falciparum detection in study of malaria in mother and infant, Portugal*

Diagnostic method Limit of detection, parasites/μL Level of care Observations
Microscopy, thick smear 50–100 Secondary Operator-dependent; limited sensitivity for low-density parasitemia
Rapid diagnostic test 100–200 Primary Limited sensitivity for low-density parasitemia
Nested PCR, 18S rRNA target 1–5 Secondary/tertiary Moderate sensitivity but may still miss low-density infections in neonates and mothers
qPCR, pfvarATS target 0.03 Tertiary Multicopy gene enhances detection
dPCR pfvarATS target ≤0.01 Tertiary Highest sensitivity, suitable for confirmatory diagnosis

*Sources: Dong et al. (5); Hofmann et al. (6); Singh et al. (8). dPCR, digital PCR; qPCR, quantitative PCR.

Main Article

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1These authors contributed equally to this article.

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