A woman patient with history of travel to tropical Africa was noncompliant with her antimalarial medications.She now has a cyclical fever and paroxysm every 72 hours.The following organism is seen in her peripheral blood smear consistent with an infection caused by:

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Plasmodium malariae usually invades older RBCs, perhaps accounting for the occasional darker appearance of the invaded RBC.The life cycle is characterized as quartan, with reproduction occurring every 72 hours and invasion of new RBCs every fourth day.The trophozoite of P.malariae is compact and may assume a characteristic "band" appearance, in which it stretches across the diameter of the RBCs.The mature schizont contains 6 to 12 merozoites with an average of 8.Merozoites may be arranged in a characteristic loose daisy petal arrangement around the clumped pigment.CDC PHIL #5130

A Woman Patient with History of Travel to Tropical Africa