PRB1 and malaria: The in-house designed qPCR primers and probes were observed to species-specific for Pk and Pc in the multiplex format, as the 18S rRNA primers and probes specific for Pk and Pc did not amplify any of the human malaria parasites DNA (Pf, Pv, Pm and Po) (Figure 2); thus, validating the multiplex qPCR assay to be species-specific for Pk and Pc.