Discovery Of What Drives The Development Of A Fatal Form Of Malaria: The Culprit, One’s Own Immune System

Platelets - those tiny, unassuming cells that cause blood to clot and scabs to form when you cut yourself - play an important early role in promoting cerebral malaria, an often lethal complication that occurs mostly in children. Affecting as many as half a billion people in tropical and subtropical regions, malaria is one of the oldest recorded diseases and the parasite responsible for it, Plasmodium, among the most studied pathogens of all time.

More: continued here

Filed under: Tropical on September 8th, 2008