Plasmodium knowlesi infections in a small number of non-immune natural hosts (Macaca fascicularis) and in rhesus monkeys (M. mulatta).

Abstract

The natural host of Plasmodium knowlesi is the kra monkey, Macaca fascicularis, but this parasite, initially mistaken for P. malariae, is now infecting humans in some areas of Southeast Asia. Here we present data from experiments performed in the 1970s in which sera from a few naive M. fascicularis, taken in the course of a first infection, exhibited rapidly rising inhibition of in vitro replication of P. knowlesi. The results were compared with sera from P. knowlesi-infected rhesus monkeys that usually die if left untreated.