"So, naturalists observe, a flea has smaller fleas that on him prey; and these have smaller still to bite ’em; and so proceed ad infinitum."
- Jonathan Swift

January 10, 2010

January 1 - Plasmodium falciparum


Plasmodium falciparum Welch 1897 (Apicomplexa: Haemosporida) is one of the handful of species of malaria parasites that infect humans as their hosts. These single-celled eukaryotes are transmitted by Anopheles mosquitos. Of all of the species that infects humans, P. falciparum is the most deadly. It is thought that these parasites might kill close to two million people a year, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa. The genome of this species was completely sequenced in 2002.

1 comment:

  1. Well, I just dropped by to congratulate the team for this blog. Just a suggestion, since I believe this is becoming a fairly good resource of parasitology students, why not include cited works and references for further readings.
    Thanks a lot.

    ReplyDelete