Multimedia Gallery - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has mapped out malaria's two-host life cycle.

July 20, 2015

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has mapped out malaria's two-host life cycle.

The malaria parasite life cycle involves two hosts, illustrated in this chart from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. During a blood meal, a malaria-infected female Anopheles mosquito inoculates sporozoites into the human host. Those sporozoites infect liver cells. From there, the parasite matures, multiplies and invades the bloodstream (some strains can persist in the liver and cause relapses by invading the bloodstream weeks, or even years later). When another female Anopheles mosquito bites the infected human, it ingests malaria gametocyctes, beginning the mosquito stages of the parasite's life. Li's virus would make an infected human a "dead end" for the disease, so that any mosquitoes that bite that person would not be able to spread it.

Credit: CDC

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