Plasmodium Vivax And Falciparum

The protozoan species Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax are well known for causing malaria in humans. Malaria is a parasitic disease that causes attacks of chills and fever, anemia, splenomegaly, and even death. It also provides resistance to another disease sickle cell anemia, through it’s involvement with blood cells in humans. This disease has taken over most of sub-Saharan Africa, as well as other tropical environments in South America, Asia and Central America. According to the CDC, 41% of the world’s population lives in an area where malaria is transmitted, and over one million people (mainly children) die from malaria each year. Most of the deaths result from P. falciparum infection, the deadlier strain of the two most common.

Malaria is known to be transmitted among humans by the female Anopheles mosquitoes. This insect is the definitive host for Plasmodium sporozoites to develop. The mosquito is only half of the path of development and infection for Plasmodium. The path is more complicated than just an injection into a human that causes illness. The female anopheles mosquito carries sporozoites in her salivary glands. Upon attraction, the mosquito then bites into human flesh, thus releasing the sporozoites into the human’s bloodstream. Malaria in humans develops in two phases: the exoerythrocytic (in the liver) and the erythrocytic (in the bloodstream) stages. The sporozoites travel to the liver in the human and multiply asexually through hepatocytes. The sporozoites undergo binary fission in the red blood cells and become smaller fragments known as merozoites. The red blood cells erupt and release these fragments into the bloodstream, only to restart the process again. When this happens the symptoms of fever and chills occur in the human. Some merozoites are formed into gamete cells. These gametocytes keep malaria as an epidemic. If a mosquito feeds on the infected human, she will pick up the gametocytes to complete the second half of the cycle. The cycle in the mosquito develops more sporozoites. These are matured in the enterics of the mosquito and then travel to nest in the salivary glands of the Anopheles until they are released again into a human.

Malaria can be diagnosed through blood films. Thick ones are used to diagnose a small outbreak and thin can help distinguish