Plasmodium vivax is a parasite that is transmitted by the bite of an infected mosquito.
Plasmodium vivax is a unicellular parasite that causes malaria in humans. It is carried by mosquitoes and is injected into the human bloodstream when the mosquito takes a blood meal, whereupon it infects the red blood cells and causes cycles of fever, chills and weakness. Plasmodium vivax is one of four Plasmodium species that cause malaria in humans, and it has several characteristics which make it unique among them.
Symptoms of Plasmodium vivax
The strain of malaria caused by Plasmodium vivax is known as vivax malaria. Historically, vivax malaria has been called "benign," but it is benign only in the sense that the disease does not commonly result in death. Like other types of malaria, the symptoms of vivax malaria include cycles of fever, chills, weakness, vomiting, headache and diarrhea. These cycles are caused by the life cycle of Plasmodium vivax as it reproduces inside its human host's red blood cells.
Dormancy and Plasmodium Vivax
Relapses of vivax malaria can occur many months or years after the disease is first treated. These relapses occur because Plasmodium vivax can lie dormant in the host's liver cells, where it is protected from the effects of antimalarial drugs. This dormant stage makes vivax malaria more difficult to treat than the more deadly falciparum malaria, which does not go dormant and is thus always vulnerable to antimalarial drugs. Special medication must be taken to kill the dormant parasites inside the liver cells.
Distribution of Plasmodium Vivax
Vivax malaria is the most widely distributed of the human malarias. It is found in tropical and subtropical areas all over the world, from North America to the South Pacific. Increases in international travel, as well as the widespread presence of the mosquito that carries the disease, have caused it to spread into areas where it was not previously known.
Plasmodium Vivax and Plasmodium Falciparum
Endoplasmic vivax has several characteristics that make it different from Plasmodium falciparum. This is important because Plasmodium falciparum, being the more deadly strain of malaria, is more often the focus of malaria-related research. While falciparum malaria is more likely to be fatal, vivax malaria shows symptoms that are much more intense. The dormancy stage seen in vivax malaria is absent from the life cycle of falciparum malaria, so they require different methods of treatment. Also, Plasmodium vivax cannot infect people with a certain type of blood, called Duffy negative. This blood type is most commonly found in West Africa, which explains why rates of vivax malaria there are so low.
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