Cerritos et al. Malaria Journal 2014, 13:35

Full list of author information is available at the end of the articlePlasmodium vivax is a parasite with a high prevalence in several countries around the world [1]. It has been pro-posed that southeast Asia represents the possible site of origin for P. vivax [2-4] and a number of individuals were subsequently dispersed along with human popula-tion movements and eventually became established in different [5]. The Mesoamerican region is one of the lat-est locations where P. vivax was introduced, with time to most recent common ancestor of 23 ky compared to South America (309 ky) and other regions outside southeast Asia [6]. In these regions, although transmis-sion is endemic, it is necessary to progress toward the elimination of this disease, and population genetics can be an efficient tool for understanding the origin, disper-sion and persistence of parasite genotypes [7]. * Correspondence