The Life Cycle of the Malaria Parasite

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The life cycle of the malaria parasite in a human or animal begins when an infected mosquito transmits malaria sporozoites to a new host. The sporozoites travel to the liver, where they invade hepatocytes liver cells and multiply thousands of times over the following two weeks before rupturing out of the liver into the blood stream. During the first 48 hours after infecting a red blood cell, a parasite goes through several phases of development . The first phase is the ring stage, in which the parasite begins to metabolize hemoglobin. The next phase is the trophozoite stage, during which the parasite metabolizes most of the hemoglobin, gets larger, and prepares to reproduce more parasites. Finally, the parasite divides asexually to form a multinucleated schizont. At the end of the cycle, the red blood cell bursts open and the parasites are dispersed to infect more red blood cells.