Plasmodium malariae blood-stage dynamics

We examine the dynamics of parasitemia, fever, and gametocytemia reflected in the preintervention charts of 180 malaria-naive U.S. neurosyphilis patie nts infected with the USPHS strain of Plasmodium malariae, for malariathera py, focusing on the 84 charts for which more than 35 days of patency preced ed intervention and daily records encompassed 92% or more of the duration o f each infection. Inoculum size did not influence any outcome variable. Fev ers (days with temperatures greater than or equal to 101 F) followed patter ns that fit recognized brood structures more often than did our approximati ons of merogony cycles (via local peaks in parasitemia), but neither closel y fit textbook quartan patterns. There were no discernable patterns in game tocytemia. Successful transmission to mosquitoes increased following subcur ative drug treatment but did not depend on detectable gametocytemia.