Plasmodium Falciparum

Plasmodium falciparum is a single-celled parasite that causes falciparum malaria, the deadliest form of the disease, spread among humans through the bite of female Anopheles mosquitoes. It is the deadliest of the Plasmodium species that infect humans and has also been classified as a probable carcinogen because of its association with Burkitt lymphoma. The parasite is believed to have entered the human population from a related parasite of gorillas roughly ten thousand years ago; French army physician Alphonse Laveran first identified it in 1880, and Ronald Ross confirmed mosquito transmission in 1897. During its life cycle within a human host, the parasite passes through several distinct forms, entering as sporozoites, developing in the liver into merozoites, and then invading red blood cells, where its further development produces the fevers and other symptoms of malaria.