Taxonomy: f. Plasmodidae
Animal: Plasmodium malariae 4 24.jpg
Sites: Blood
Comment:
Plasmodium malariae pre-segmented schizont in thin film - note non enlarged red cell and large dark pigment. Untreated P. malariae infections can last up to 50 years due to a low grade cycle in the blood. The incubation period is 18-40 days (but can be much longer) and the periodicity is a regular 72 hour cycle (c.f other human malarial parasites which have irregular 48 hours cycles except for P.falciparum which has a 36-48 hour cycle but can be continuous initially).

First Picture | Previous Picture | Next Picture | Last Picture