Plasmodium falciparum

Plasmodium falciparum is one of several protozoa that cause Malaria. Plasmodium

falciparum is found in Africa, Asia and South America. Malaria is vectored by several
mosquito species in the genus Anopheles, the most common vector being Anopheles
gambiae. Plasmodium sp. have a fairly complicated life cycle. The mosquito ingests
gametocytes, the sexual stage of the protozoa, when it takes a blood meal from an
infected person. These gametocytes fuse in the mosquitos gut and produce sporozoites
which travel to the salivary glands. The sporozoites enter a human when the mosquito
takes a blood meal. The sporozoites travel through the body to the liver where they
reproduce asexually. As the population grows, the parasites move to red blood cells.
They continue to reproduce asexually in the blood cells, maturing into merozoites, which
fill the cell causing it to burst. The merozoites infect other red blood cells, continuing the
cycle. Some merozoites transform into gametocytes, which are ingested by another
mosquito. Symptoms of malaria appear one to two weeks after initial infection and
include fever, chills, sweats, and headache that repeat cyclically as the parasites destroy
red blood cells. Death can occur from severe anemia, or from capillary blockage by dead
cells. Infections are treated with chloroquinine, or more frequently doxycyclin as
Plasmodium is becoming resistant to chloroquinine. Malaria kills 1 million people each
year, most of them children in Africa.