Plasmodium

Causative Agents
 >100 species
 Both animals and humans

Plasmodium species Human infection

Plasmodium vivax Benign tertian malaria

Plasmodium falciparum Malignant tertian / Pernicious malaria

(most common and fatal)
(complications – Cerebral malaria and Black water fever)

Plasmodium malariae Quartan malaria

Plasmodium ovale Ovale tertian malaria

All forms are transmitted by the infective bite of female Anopheles mosquitoes.

Transmission through blood transfusion can also occur.

Man develops disease
after 10 to 14 days of
being bitten by an
infective mosquito.
The malarial parasite,
Plasmodium, is a very
small, single-cell blood
organism, or 'protozoan‘.
It lives as a parasite in
other organisms, namely
man and mosquito. The
parasite is the cause of
the tropical disease
Malaria.
HABITAT
RBC Age Variable:
 P. vivax  youngest
erythrocytes
 P. malariae  oldest
erythrocytes
 P. falciparum  RBCs of
every age
Anopheles, Culex and Aedes aegyptii
 Lifecycle of Plasmodium
• 2 stages
– Female Anopheles  sexual cycle
– Liver & RBCs of man  asexual cycle
a) Pre-erythrocytic or Primary Exoerthrocytic
schizogony
b) Para-erythrocytic schizogony or Secondary
Exo-erythrocytic schizogony
c) Erythrocytic shizogony

• The infectious stage of malaria - Sporozoite (found

in the salivary glands of female mosquitoes).
Primary Exo-erythrocytic Schizogony

Salivary glands  Sporozoites  human circulation  parenchymal liver cells

(mosquitoes) (spindle shaped) (30 mins)

rounded and mature

to schizonts
Micro-merozoites
(circulation)

Nuclear division to
Macro-merozoites Cell rupture EEM released exo- erythrocytic merozoites
(re-enter liver cells)
Secondary Exo-erythrocytic Schizogony

• P. vivax and P. ovale  latent form (Hypnozoites)  Relapses

in liver

• P. vivax, ovale and malariae  erythrocytic and pre-erythrocytic merozoites

 Re-enter liver cells
Erythrocytic Schizogony
Micro-merozoites  RBCs  differentiation into  amoeboid form  schizonts
ring shaped trophozoites filled with
merozoites

grows by Globin
Hematin accumulates

(48 hours P.ovale, P.vivax & P.falciparum)

Infect other merozoites released RBC rupture

Erythrocytes
(72 hours for P. malariae)
SEXUAL CYCLE; SPOROGONY (mosquito 1-3 wks)
RBCs  macro-gametocytes  die in man  RBCs containing MGs  mosquito
micro-gametocytes live in mosquitoes or free MGs
Injects into humans
and sucks MGs macro-gamete
Salivary glands 4-8 micro-gametes

Release sporozoites in body cavities

micro-gametes enter at
macro-gamete projection

Oocyst ruptures .
diploid zygote

motile ookinete

Gut wall of mosq

Haploid sporozoites N/C division Oocyst

Oocysts in Mosquito
LIFE CYCLE
 EPIDEMIOLOGY
• P. vivax and P. falciparum  more common
P. ovale  rarest of the 4 species

• > 200 million people worldwide

> 1 million deaths per year
Most common lethal infectious disease

• Tropical & subtropical areas

esp. Asia, Africa, Central and South America
Certain regions in SE Asia, S. America, E. Africa 
Chloroquine Resistant strains of P. falciparum