The main parasite that causes malaria can alter its gene expression to survive undetected in the human blood stream, new research has shown.
A team of international researchers, including Dr Mario Recker from the University of Exeter, has studied how the parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, can lie seemingly dormant during unfavourable conditions.
The study explains how the parasite can remain in a person without showing observable symptoms, before allowing malaria to re-emerge when mosquito populations resurge during the rainy season.
