Question

Give the scientific name of the parasite that causes malignant malaria in humans. At what stage does this parasite enter the human body? Trace its life cycle in human body.

Answer 1

Malaria is an illness that affects life. Usually, it is spread by the bite of an infected mosquito called Anopheles. The Plasmodium parasite is borne by infected mosquitoes. The parasite will be transmitted into the bloodstream when this mosquito bites you.

Complete answer:
The malignant terrain or subtertian malaria is characterized by fever cycles every 36-48hr. The causative agent is caused by Plasmodium falciparum. If it affects the brain, this virus is the most extreme and can be deadly.

Plasmodium's life cycle - Plasmodium sporozoites are infected in the human blood when a female Anopheles mosquito bites the person with its vector. These sporozoites then enter by blood supply into the liver. They replicate sexually in the liver and rupture the liver cells and are released into the blood, where fresh red blood cells are targeted. These are known as merozoites. Merozoites grow within the RBCs into a ring process of forming a schizont (or trophozoites). Schizont further breaks to form 8-24 merozoites.The RBC's burst to unleash merozoites into the blood while the schizont is mature.

The rupture of RBCs is associated with the release of hemozoin, a radioactive material. This hemozoin is liable every 3-4 days for the chills and high fever that recur. Many merozoites do not grow into the schizont. They grow into premature sexual stages, called gametocytes, instead. These are eaten up by the female Anopheles after a mosquito bite. Male and female gametocytes fertilize and grow into the advanced infectious stage called sporozoite in the mosquito's intestine.

Sporozoites escape from the stomach and travel to the mosquito's salivary glands. When another person is attacked by this infected mosquito, these sporozoites are injected through the saliva into the blood to start the liver and RBC cycle again. The Plasmodium therefore ends its life cycle in two men and mosquito hosts. In mammals, the life cycle is asexual and it is sexual in mosquitoes.

Note: Ross made his seminal discovery on 20 August 1897, in Secunderabad. He discovered the malaria parasite and proved the role of Anopheles mosquitoes in the transmission of malaria parasites to humans when dissecting the stomach tissue of an Anopheles mosquito that had been fed four days earlier to a malaria patient.