Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Helsinki, Finland.
Clin Infect Dis. 2011 Jun;52(11):1356-62. doi: 10.1093/cid/cir180.
Human malaria has been known to be caused by 4 Plasmodium species, with Plasmodium falciparum causing the most-severe disease. Recently, numerous reports have described human malaria caused by a fifth Plasmodium species, Plasmodium knowlesi, which usually infects macaque monkeys. Hundreds of human cases have been reported from Malaysia, several cases have been reported in other Southeast Asian countries, and a few cases have been reported in travelers visiting these areas. Similarly to P. falciparum, P. knowlesi can cause severe and even fatal cases of disease that are more severe than those caused by the other Plasmodium species. Polymerase chain reaction is of value for diagnosis because P. knowlesi infection is easily misdiagnosed as less dangerous Plasmodium malariae infection with conventional microscopy. P. knowlesi infection should be suspected in patients who are infected with malaria in Southeast Asia. If human-mosquito-human transmission were to occur, the disease could spread to new areas where the mosquito vectors live, such as the popular tourist areas in western India.
已知人类疟疾是由 4 种疟原虫引起的，其中恶性疟原虫引起的疾病最为严重。最近，有大量报告描述了由第五种疟原虫，即猕猴疟原虫引起的人类疟疾，这种疟原虫通常感染猕猴。已从马来西亚报告了数百例人类病例，其他东南亚国家也有几例报告，还有一些旅行者在这些地区感染的病例。与恶性疟原虫类似，猕猴疟原虫也可引起严重甚至致命的疾病，其严重程度超过其他疟原虫引起的疾病。聚合酶链反应对诊断很有价值，因为猕猴疟原虫感染很容易被误诊为传统显微镜检查的危险性较低的间日疟原虫感染。在东南亚感染疟疾的患者中应怀疑有猕猴疟原虫感染。如果发生人-蚊-人传播，这种疾病可能会传播到蚊子传播的新地区，例如印度西部的热门旅游区。
