Plasmodium vivax in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Plasmodium vivax malaria has not traditionally been a major concern in central Africa given the high prevalence of the human Duffy-negative phenotype that is believed to prevent infection. Increasing reports of asymptomatic and symptomatic infections in Duffy-negative individuals throughout Africa raise the possibility that P. vivax is evolving to evade host resistance, but there are few parasite samples with genomic data available from this part of the world. In this study, we perform whole genome sequencing of one new P. vivax isolate from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and assess how this central African isolate fits into the global context of this species.