Lysenko A J, Beljaev A E, Rybalka V M
Bull World Health Organ. 1977;55(5):541-9.
The understanding of clinico-epidemiological phenomena of tertian malaria has been the subject of controversy. The authors suggest a system of postulates which give a non-contradictory explanation of the phenomena of relapses and long incubation. The main idea is that the duration of exoerythrocytic development of Plasmodium vivax is a polymorphic characteristic controlled by a set of genes. According to these postulates sporozoites may be subdivided into two groups designated as tachysporozoites and bradysporozoites, responsible for early and late manifestations, respectively. The logical analysis of the system suggests that it does not contradict the experimental facts. Moreover, the theory of polymorphic sporozoites permits an explanation and quantification of interrelations between different phenomena. The authors stress that the variation of genes is much greater in natural populations of parasites than in individual isolates and strains and therefore that the features of strains do not fully reflect the features of populations. Classical laboratory experiments should be combined with epidemiological experiments which allow a study of the population as a whole. The methodology of experiments to be undertaken in further investigations of the long latency period is discussed.
对间日疟临床流行病学现象的理解一直存在争议。作者提出了一套假设体系，该体系对复发和长潜伏期现象给出了无矛盾的解释。主要观点是，间日疟原虫红细胞外期发育的持续时间是一个由一组基因控制的多态性特征。根据这些假设，子孢子可分为两组，分别称为速发型子孢子和缓发型子孢子，它们分别负责早期和晚期表现。该体系的逻辑分析表明，它与实验事实并不矛盾。此外，多态性子孢子理论允许对不同现象之间的相互关系进行解释和量化。作者强调，寄生虫自然种群中的基因变异比单个分离株和菌株中的要大得多，因此菌株的特征并不能完全反映种群的特征。经典的实验室实验应与流行病学实验相结合，后者能够对整个种群进行研究。文中讨论了在进一步研究长潜伏期时所采用实验的方法学。
