| Abstract: |
The genus Plasmodium covers a diverse group of protozoan parasites whose life cycle involves a vertebrate host (e.g., human, monkey, rodent, bird, and reptile) and a mosquito vector. As the causal agents for malaria, a disease that has been recognized since time immemorial and that was thought to result from exposure to bad air or gas from swamps (mal air ia or miasma), Plasmodium was only identi’ed in 1880, and the role of mosquito in its transmission was elucidated in 1897. Of <200 species within the genus, ‘ve (i.e., Plasmodium falciparum, Plasmodium vivax, Plasmodium ovale, Plasmodium malariae, and Plasmodium knowlesi) are capable of inducing clinical disease of varying severity in humans, affecting more than 300 million people and resulting in approximately 1.5 million deaths each year. © 2013 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. |
