Plasmodium malariae

Plasmodium malariae
Giemsa-stained micrograph of a mature Plasmodium malariae schizont
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Clade:	Diaphoretickes
Clade:	SAR
Clade:	Alveolata
Phylum:	Apicomplexa
Class:	Aconoidasida
Order:	Haemospororida
Family:	Plasmodiidae
Genus:	Plasmodium
Species:	P. malariae
Binomial name
Plasmodium malariae (Feletti & Grassi, 1889)
Synonyms[1]
Haemamoeba malariae Feletti and Grassi, 1889 Plasmodium malariae var. quartanae Celli and Sanfelice, 1891 Plasmodium malariae quartanae Kruse, 1892 Haemamoeba laverani var. quartanae Labbe, 1894 Plasmodium rodhaini Brumpt, 1939

Plasmodium malariae is a parasitic protozoan that causes malaria in humans. It is one of several species of Plasmodium parasites that infect other organisms as pathogens, also including Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax, responsible for most malarial infection. Found worldwide, it causes a so-called "benign malaria", not nearly as dangerous as that produced by P. falciparum or P. vivax. The signs include fevers that recur at approximately three-day intervals – a quartan fever or quartan malaria – longer than the two-day (tertian) intervals of the other malarial parasite.