Babesia parasites invade and destroy red blood cells. This severely limits the ability of these cells to supply tissues with oxygen. While more than 100 species of Babesia parasites have been ...

parasites, and circulating cell-free mitochondrial DNA, which can signify severe disease, such as sepsis or pneumonia. This pathogen-sensing role comes at a cost, however: red blood cells (RBCs) that ...

Under the microscope a malaria parasite can actually be seen literally crawling inside of people’s red blood cells. In order to survive, the malaria parasite has to break down a part of the red blood ...

The parasites that cause malaria—Plasmodium species—have complex lifecycles. They are spread between hosts by mosquitoes, spend some time maturing in liver cells, and then eventually end up inside red ...

When an infected mosquito bites a human, the malaria parasite enters the red blood cells, which transport it to the liver. The red blood cells burst, releasing the parasite throughout the body.

Their red blood cells, containing some abnormal hemoglobin, tend to sickle when they are infected by the malaria parasite. Those infected cells flow through the spleen, which culls them out ...

Initially, the parasites invade the liver, where they multiply 10,000-fold. They’re safely hidden until they burst out and infect red blood cells. At this point they’re vulnerable because ...

The parasites known to cause babesiosis are shown here infecting red blood cells under the microscope. (Image credit: Smith Collection/Gado / Contributor via Getty Images) Typical symptoms of ...