Diagnosing and treating malaria in pregnancy is critical to optimizing maternal and fetal health outcomes but can be difficult in low transmission areas, where infections may be asymptomatic and have low parasite burden. In this study, Mary Ellen Gilder and colleagues use ultrasensitive PCR to test for subclinical malaria in blood samples from pregnant women taken during antenatal visits. They find that 80% of submicroscopic malaria infections were missed by standard tests and associated with increased risk of maternal anaemia, highlighting the need for cost-effective solutions to prevent and detect subclinical malaria in pregnancy.

Image Credit: Ahmad Ardity