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Article: Malaria parasite interactions with the human host
- Article from:
- Journal of Postgraduate Medicine
- Article date:
- January 1, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright Medknow Publications Jan-Mar 2004. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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The malaria parasite is a prevalent human pathogen with at least 300 million acute cases of malaria each year globally and more than a million deaths. A deeper understanding of the nature and regulation of protective immune mechanisms against this parasite will facilitate the development of much needed vaccines. Persistence of the asexual erythrocytic (blood) stages following natural recovery from the acute phase of the infection is common in malaria infections.[1] An important reason for the persistence of malaria infections within populations is the ability of the parasites to undergo repeated antigenic variation.[2],[3] However, during the acute, and to a lesser extent the chronic phase ...