Table 1. Description of variables used in the model.

Variable/Description	Data	Value used
Probability of new parasite being introduced to population	-	0.02/day
Probability of mosquito surviving one feeding cycle	0.58–0.70 [14], [43]	0.65
Length of feeding cycle	2.7–3.7 days [14], [43]	3 days
Probability of mosquito feeding on human	0.72–0.95 [14]	0.75
Size of mosquito blood meal	0.97 µl (median value) [44]	1 µl
Length of extrinsic incubation period (EIP)	Temp. dependent [45]	9 days (at 28°C)
Larval development time	Temp. dependent [45]	12 days (at 28°C)
Probability of infectious mosquito bite resulting in liver stage infection	0.583 [29]	0.6
Duration of liver stage infection	6 days [46]	6 days
Proportion of gametocytes that are male	0.2–0.3 [47], [48]	0.25
Total number of antigenically distinct var genes in parasite population	350–1230* [49]	400
Number of var genes per parasite	59 [50]	60
Maximum parasite replication rate in the absence of any immune response (R)	8–32 [51]	16

*represents number of sequence types which may be more than antigenic types.