Medical Dictionary
Main Entry:
malaria parasite Function:
noun : a protozoan of the sporozoan genus
Plasmodium that is transmitted to humans or to certain other mammals or birds bythe bite of a mosquito in which its sexual reproduction takes place, that multiplies asexually in the vertebrate host by schizogony in the red blood cells or in certain tissue cells, and that causesdestruction of red blood cells and the febrile disease malaria or produces gametocytes by sporogony which if taken up by a suitable mosquito initiate a new sexual cycle —see
MEROZOITE, OOKINETE, PHANEROZOITE, SCHIZONT, SPOROZOITE
