ABSTRACT
Plasmodia are complex eukaryotic parasites. The four major species infecting human erythrocytes are P. falciparum, P. vivax, P. malariae and P. ovale. While P. falciparum infection is usually regarded as potentially fatal, serious complications such as anemia and spontaneous rupture of the spleen may also occur in the course of infection with the three other Plasmodium species. In the human host the pathogenesis of malaria centers about the parasite’s effect on the infected erythrocyte population which is amplified by periodic cycles of invasion, intracellular growth, replication and reinvasion.
