Plasmodium Species Infecting Primates - Species of Plasmodium Infecting Humans

Species of Plasmodium Infecting Humans

• Plasmodium falciparum (the cause of malignant tertian malaria)

• Plasmodium vivax (the most frequent cause of benign tertian malaria)

• Plasmodium ovale curtisi (another, less frequent, cause of benign tertian malaria)

• Plasmodium ovale wallikeri (another, less frequent, cause of benign tertian malaria)

• Plasmodium malariae (the cause of benign quartan malaria)

• Plasmodium knowlesi (the cause of severe quotidian malaria in Southeast Asia)

• Plasmodium brasilianum

• Plasmodium cynomolgi

• Plasmodium cynomolgi bastianellii

• Plasmodium inui

• Plasmodium rhodiani

• Plasmodium schwetzi

• Plasmodium semiovale

• Plasmodium simium

The first six listed here are the most common species that infect humans. With the use of the polymerase chain reaction additional species have been and are still being identified that infect humans.

One possible experimental infection has been reported with Plasmodium eylesi. Fever and low grade parasitemia were apparent at 15 days. The volunteer (Dr Bennett) had previously been infected by Plasmodium cynomolgi and the infection was not transferable to a gibbon (P. eylesi 's natural host) so this cannot be regarded as definitive evidence of its ability to infect humans. A second case has been reported that may have been a case of P. eylesi but the author was not certain of the infecting species.

A possible infection with Plasmodium tenue has been reported. This report described a case of malaria in a three year old black girl from Georgia, USA who had never been outside the US. She suffered from both P. falciparum and P. vivax malaria and while forms similar to those described for P. tenue were found in her blood even the author was skeptical about the validity of the diagnosis.

Confusingly Plasmodium tenue was proposed in the same year (1914) for a species found in birds. The human species is now considered to be likely to have been a misdiagnosis and the bird species is described on the Plasmodium tenue page.