Plasmodium

Plasmodium is a genus of unicellular eukaryotes that are obligate parasites of vertebrates and of insects such as mosquitoes in the genus Anopheles. Its life cycle runs through a blood-feeding insect host, which transmits the parasite to a vertebrate host during feeding; inside the vertebrate the parasite grows first in body tissue, typically the liver, before entering the bloodstream and destroying red blood cells, which causes malaria. More than 200 species have been described, and five regularly infect humans, Plasmodium vivax, P. falciparum, P. malariae, P. ovale and P. knowlesi, with P. falciparum by far the most lethal, responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths every year.