Malaria Life Cycle

Follow the Plasmodium parasite's intricate and, occasionally bizarre, 13 steps to transmitting malaria.

Step 1

With her recent blood meal, the female Anopheles mosquito consumed dozens of stowaways: gametocytes male and female forms of the parasite Plasmodium falciparum.

Step 2

In the mosquito’s midgut, male gametocytes produce sperm-like microgametes. The female macrogametes soon are fertilized by the males, transform into zygotes and lengthen into sausage-shaped ookinetes.

Step 3

A few ookinetes pass through the midgut wall and form oocysts.

Step 4

For 8 to 15 days, the oocysts produce thousands of thread-like sporozoites. Perhaps 20 percent of them reach the mosquito’s salivary glands.

Step 5

As the mosquito bites another person, about 100 sporozoites swim with the saliva into the victim.

Step 6

The sporozoites ride the bloodstream. Only one or two reach their target: the liver. The human victim isn’t yet aware of the enemy within.

Step 7

After infiltrating a liver cell, each sporozoite transforms into a schizont that produces thousands of merozoites, which will invade red blood cells.

Step 8

After 5 to 7 days, the merozoites burst from the infected liver cell, enter the bloodstream and invade red blood cells. The infected person still doesn’t feel any symptoms.

Step 9

The parasite first takes on a signet-ring shape inside the red blood cell and later makes knobs on the red blood cell's surface, causing it to adhere to blood vessel lining and impede blood flow.

Step 10

The rings and the later form—trophozoites—feast on the red blood cell’s cytoplasm and hemoglobin. This stage ends with the formation of a schizont that produces up to 32 new merozoites. These exit and in a burst, invade still more red blood cells.

Step 11

The parasite’s numbers increase tenfold every 48 hours. From the one or two sporozoites that entered the liver, trillions of parasites may teem in the body. Two weeks after the mosquito’s bite, the patient experiences fever, headache, malaise and nausea.

Step 12

The knobby red blood cells stick like Velcro to the endothelial cells lining the blood vessels of the brain, heart and lung—and, in pregnant women, the placenta—which often leads to death.

Step 13

During the blood stage, some merozoites develop into yet another form of the parasite: the infective male and female gametocytes—seeds of destruction for malaria’s next victims.

Comments

This forum is closed

srikanta

India 01/19/2011 08:40:54 PM
very good
nyanlinn

Myanmar 01/21/2011 01:37:48 AM
Very interesting informatics.
Sreehari U

New Delhi, India 01/21/2011 03:52:15 AM
The information is very good for researchers working on malaria.
Yogesh

Anand, Gujarat 01/26/2011 11:53:57 PM
Very much illustrative.
Dr. C. Nagaraj

Bangalore, India 02/08/2011 10:38:45 PM
It is an excellent presentation, very informative. Probably this is the first presentation I am seeing things with quantification.
EDWIN IMBAYI

Samburu,Kenya 03/10/2011 10:32:44 AM
Am encouraged
pedro luyo

peru 03/12/2011 10:30:57 PM
Historia natural de la malaria
Chagina Evelyn

Kenya 03/19/2011 10:08:57 AM
excellent work.very informative
Jorge Díaz

Guatemala 04/02/2011 05:14:38 PM
Excellent work, very clear, didactic and informative, I am using it in my Public Health Classes.
Zainuddin Djaka

makassar, sulsel, indonesia 04/03/2011 02:17:16 AM
Very excellent information for the community.
Liana Haddad

Palestine 04/15/2011 03:29:13 AM
very good work and good way of presentation
WELLINGTON MBITHI

kenya 04/28/2011 09:04:22 AM
excellent work.very innovative
saswati datta

india 04/30/2011 09:38:03 AM
very informative & lucid presentation
Khin Nan Lon

Myanmar 07/31/2011 02:01:24 PM
Very excellent presentation for teaching and health education.
maria fernanda yasnot

Monteria, Colombia 10/31/2011 06:25:52 PM
Very Good!!
Gourav Dey

India 11/25/2011 09:14:46 AM
Very informative and lucid illustration.
Kyaw Myo Tun

UK 12/10/2012 05:53:26 PM
Very good indeed!
Dr.K.Gopalarathinam.Vellore,India

Vellore-India 03/31/2013 09:16:08 AM
Good presentation.It will Help for common man understanding the spread of Disease.

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The MAGAZINE of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Special Issue 2011 | www.jhsph.edu

Comments

srikanta

nyanlinn

Sreehari U

Yogesh

Dr. C. Nagaraj

EDWIN IMBAYI

pedro luyo

Chagina Evelyn

Jorge Díaz

Zainuddin Djaka

Liana Haddad

WELLINGTON MBITHI

saswati datta

Khin Nan Lon

maria fernanda yasnot

Gourav Dey

Kyaw Myo Tun

Dr.K.Gopalarathinam.Vellore,India

From the Archives

Talk to Us

Stay Connected:

Johns Hopkins Public Health Magazine

The MAGAZINE of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Special Issue 2011 | www.jhsph.edu

Comments

srikanta

nyanlinn

Sreehari U

Yogesh

Dr. C. Nagaraj

EDWIN IMBAYI

pedro luyo

Chagina Evelyn

Jorge Díaz

Zainuddin Djaka

Liana Haddad

WELLINGTON MBITHI

saswati datta

Khin Nan Lon

maria fernanda yasnot

Gourav Dey

Kyaw Myo Tun

Dr.K.Gopalarathinam.Vellore,India

From the Archives

Talk to Us

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The MAGAZINE of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Special Issue 2011 | www.jhsph.edu