Challenger, JosephJosephChallengerOlivera Mesa, DanielaDanielaOlivera MesaDa, Dari FDari FDaYerbanga, R SergeR SergeYerbangaLefèvre, ThierryThierryLefèvreCohuet, AnnaAnnaCohuetChurcher, Thomas SThomas SChurcher2021-04-222021-04-222021-03-08Nature Communications, 2021, 12 (1), pp.1-122041-1723http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/87857Transmission-blocking vaccines that interrupt malaria transmission from humans to mosquitoes are being tested in early clinical trials. The activity of such a vaccine is commonly evaluated using membrane-feeding assays. Understanding the field efficacy of such a vaccine requires knowledge of how heavily infected wild, naturally blood-fed mosquitoes are, as this indicates how difficult it will be to block transmission. Here we use data on naturally infected mosquitoes collected in Burkina Faso to translate the laboratory-estimated activity into an estimated activity in the field. A transmission dynamics model is then utilised to predict a transmission-blocking vaccine’s public health impact alongside existing interventions. The model suggests that school-aged children are an attractive population to target for vaccination. Benefits of vaccination are distributed across the population, averting the greatest number of cases in younger children. Utilising a transmission-blocking vaccine alongside existing interventions could have a substantial impact against malaria.© The Author(s) 2021. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/.Science & TechnologyMultidisciplinary SciencesScience & Technology - Other TopicsPLASMODIUM-FALCIPARUM MALARIAANOPHELES-GAMBIAEMOSQUITOSINFECTIONELIMINATIONRESERVOIRASSAYSAdolescentAdultBurkina FasoChildChild, PreschoolHumansInfantMalariaMalaria VaccinesMalaria, FalciparumMiddle AgedPrevalencePublic HealthVaccinationYoung AdultHumansMalariaMalaria, FalciparumMalaria VaccinesVaccinationPrevalencePublic HealthAdolescentAdultMiddle AgedChildChild, PreschoolInfantBurkina FasoYoung AdultJournal Articlehttps://www.dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21775-3https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-21775-3GAT.0888-30-01618462-COLMR/R015600/1