Journal of Antivirals & Antiretrovirals
Open Access

Malaria Parasites

Plasmodium is a genus of unicellular eukaryotes that are obligate parasites of vertebrates and insects. The life cycles of Plasmodium species involve development in a blood-feeding insect host which then injects parasites into a vertebrate host during a blood meal.Malaria is caused by the protozoan parasite Plasmodium. Human malaria is caused by four different species of Plasmodium: P.

Malaria is a mosquito-borne parasitic infection spread by Anopheles mosquitoes. The Plasmodium parasite that causes malaria is neither a virus nor a bacterium – it is a single-celled parasite that multiplies in red blood cells of humans as well as in the mosquito intestine.ovale, can occur again (relapsing malaria). In P. vivax and P. ovale infections, some parasites can remain dormant in the liver for several months up to about 4 years after a person is bitten by an infected mosquito.

Plasmodium falciparum (or P. falciparum) Plasmodium malariae (or P. malariae) Plasmodium vivax (or P. vivax) Plasmodium ovale (or P. ovale) Plasmodium knowlesi (or P. knowlesi)