Plasmodium vivax is one of the pathogens that cause malaria, there is also plasmodium ovale and plasmodium falciparum (which is the most dangerous of the three)
The malaria pathogen is a microscopically small, single-celled parasite named “plasmodium”. Mosquitos spread the protozoan Plasmodium vivax that causes malaria.
Added, source below :
Plasmodium (the genus of pathogens causing malaria)
The Plasmodium species causing malaria
Plasmodium falciparum. Causes malignant tertian malaria, which kills through cerebral malaria or renal failure. Fever occurs about every 48 hours but this periodicity is often masked because the stages are not always synchronous. This periodicity is termed tertian because of fever on the first day, no fever on the second and then a return of fever on the third day. Plasmodium falciparum needs an average ambient temperature of at least 20ºC so is found mainly in warmer parts of the world.
Plasmodium vivax. Causes benign tertian malaria which rarely kills. This species is not found in tropical Africa mainly because black Africans lack the red cell surface Duffy antigen that P. vivax requires for cell invasion. It can exist in places with an average summer temperature of only 16ºC. Together with P. ovale is is considered a relapsing malaria, so named because it can remain in a dormant hypnozoite stage for very long periods (years) in the liver. The adaptive value of this ability is that the parasite can persist in areas that experience long winters with no opportunities for transmission.
Plasmodium ovale. Causes a rare tertian malaria with a long incubation period and relapses at three-month intervals. Found mainly in tropical Africa but with sporadic reports from elsewhere. Life P. vivax, it is a recurrent malaria with a dormant liver stage.
Plasmodium malariae. Causes quartan malaria with fever returning every 72 hours. It is remarkable in that it can persist in the blood of a host for decades at very low densities, but it does not have a dormant stage in the liver. Relapses can sometimes occur half a century after being infected.
All four species are found in regions all round the world but they are thought to have been introduced to the New World from Europe and Africa during the sixteenth century. The distributions of P. vivax and P. ovale rarely overlap.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Plasmodium vivax is one of the pathogens that cause malaria, there is also plasmodium ovale and plasmodium falciparum (which is the most dangerous of the three)
Yes.
The malaria pathogen is a microscopically small, single-celled parasite named “plasmodium”. Mosquitos spread the protozoan Plasmodium vivax that causes malaria.
Added, source below :
Plasmodium (the genus of pathogens causing malaria)
The Plasmodium species causing malaria
Plasmodium falciparum. Causes malignant tertian malaria, which kills through cerebral malaria or renal failure. Fever occurs about every 48 hours but this periodicity is often masked because the stages are not always synchronous. This periodicity is termed tertian because of fever on the first day, no fever on the second and then a return of fever on the third day. Plasmodium falciparum needs an average ambient temperature of at least 20ºC so is found mainly in warmer parts of the world.
Plasmodium vivax. Causes benign tertian malaria which rarely kills. This species is not found in tropical Africa mainly because black Africans lack the red cell surface Duffy antigen that P. vivax requires for cell invasion. It can exist in places with an average summer temperature of only 16ºC. Together with P. ovale is is considered a relapsing malaria, so named because it can remain in a dormant hypnozoite stage for very long periods (years) in the liver. The adaptive value of this ability is that the parasite can persist in areas that experience long winters with no opportunities for transmission.
Plasmodium ovale. Causes a rare tertian malaria with a long incubation period and relapses at three-month intervals. Found mainly in tropical Africa but with sporadic reports from elsewhere. Life P. vivax, it is a recurrent malaria with a dormant liver stage.
Plasmodium malariae. Causes quartan malaria with fever returning every 72 hours. It is remarkable in that it can persist in the blood of a host for decades at very low densities, but it does not have a dormant stage in the liver. Relapses can sometimes occur half a century after being infected.
All four species are found in regions all round the world but they are thought to have been introduced to the New World from Europe and Africa during the sixteenth century. The distributions of P. vivax and P. ovale rarely overlap.