Malaria Malaria Malaria affects 100 million people and kills 1.5million every year. The etiologic agent is a protozoa called plasmodium and the anopheles mosquito acts as a vector. The massive antimalaria campaign from 1950 to 1980 failed and produced resistant mosquito for DDT and resistant plasmodium to chloroquine. Life cycle and pathogenesis The sporozoites transmitted by the mosquito bites pass into the blood stream and invade the hepatocytes by binding hepatocyte receptors for serum proteins thrombospondin and properdin. this occurs because the sporozoites have similar domains to these proteins. Within the liver cell they multiply rapidly and as many as 30,000 merozoites (asexual haploid blood form) are released into the blood when hepatocyte ruptures. · The HLA-B53 associated resistance to PF. Infection showed by many Africans appears caused by the ability of HLA-B53 to present liver stage malaria Ag to cytotoxic T...