Plasmodium malariae
| Plasmodium malariae | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Giemsa-stained micrograph of a mature Plasmodium malariae | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| (unranked): | SAR |
| (unranked): | Alveolata |
| Phylum: | Apicomplexa |
| Class: | Aconoidasida |
| Order: | Haemosporida |
| Family: | Plasmodiidae |
| Genus: | Plasmodium |
| Species: | P. malariae |
| Binomial name | |
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Plasmodium malariae (Feletti & Grassi, 1889) |
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| Synonyms | |
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Haemamoeba malariae Feletti and Grassi, 1889 |
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Haemamoeba malariae Feletti and Grassi, 1889
Plasmodium malariae var. quartanae Celli and Sanfelice, 1891
Plasmodium malariae quartanae Kruse, 1892
Haemamoeba laverani var. quartanae Labbe, 1894
Plasmodium rodhaini Brumpt, 1939
Plasmodium malariae is a parasitic protozoa that causes malaria in humans. It is one of several species of Plasmodium parasites that infect humans including Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax which are responsible for most malarial infection. While found worldwide, it is a so-called "benign malaria" and is not nearly as dangerous as that produced by P. falciparum or P. vivax. It causes fevers that recur at approximately three-day intervals (a quartan fever), longer than the two-day (tertian) intervals of the other malarial parasites, hence its alternative names quartan fever and quartan malaria.
Malaria has been recognized since the Greek and Roman civilizations over 2,000 years ago, with different patterns of fever described by the early Greeks. In 1880, Alphonse Laveran discovered that the causative agent of malaria is a parasite. Detailed work of Golgi in 1886 demonstrated that in some patients there was a relationship between the 72-hour life cycle of the parasite and the chill and fever patterns in the patient. The same observation was found for parasites with 48-hour cycles. Golgi concluded that there must be more than one species of malaria parasite responsible for these different patterns of infection.
Each year, approximately 500 million people will be infected with malaria worldwide Of those infected, roughly two million will die from the disease. Malaria is caused by six Plasmodium species: Plasmodium falciparum, Plasmodium vivax, Plasmodium ovale curtisi, Plasmodium ovale wallikeri, Plasmodium malariae and Plasmodium knowlesi. At any one time, an estimated 300 million people are said to be infected with at least one of these Plasmodium species and so there is a great need for the development of effective treatments for decreasing the yearly mortality and morbidity rates.
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