Illustration of the human bodys contamination by the Plasmodium parasite which is responsible for malaria. A female mosquito carrying the parasite bites a healthy person and transmits the parasite. The parasites, in the shape of sporozoites, cross the skin cells to the blood flow. The sporozoites then penetrate cells in the liver, and transform into merozoites, all the while multiplying. To avoid being destroyed by macrophages, the merozoites trick the body by leaving the liver cells covered in a membrane, and join the blood flow to the lungs, where immune surveillance is lower and blood flow slower.
