Figure 2.
The characteristics of pre-erythrocytic and erythrocytic phases of parasitemia for different malaria species of humans. The blood smear kinetics shown here assume that a single sporozoite from different malaria species were used to infect humans, as indicated: Plasmodium falciparum (blue bar and circle), Plasmodium vivax (red bar and circle); Plasmodium ovale resembles P. vivax; and Plasmodium malariae (yellow bar and square). The minimum duration of liver-stage infection is represented by blue (P. falciparum), red (P. vivaxand P. ovale), and yellow (P. malariae) bars. Key: E, elimination; M, parasitemia when malaria infection will be observed by conventional blood-smear analysis (2×108 total number of parasites in the body); PCR, parasitemia when malaria infection will be observed byPCR-based diagnosis (1infected erythrocyte per 5×106 erythrocytes μl−1).