Open Access | Malaria: what can apes teach humans?

Human malaria is caused by four human-host restricted or adapted species of the genus Plasmodium, listed here in their order of risk for causing severe disease Plasmodium falciparum, Plasmodium vivax, Plasmodium ovale and Plasmodium malariae – or so we thought. There were a few exceptions to this accepted wisdom, not least, the very close similarity between P. vivax and P. simium and P. malariae and P. brazilianium (the non-human hosts being New World monkeys) [1], but overall the story appeared complete.