Schizogony in P. Knowlesi malaria.

This film shows the bursting of schizonts and the attempts by merozoites to enter new red cells. The film was made in 1969 with a 16mm camera on a microscope while the parasitised blood was held at 37 degrees C in a chamber containing culture medium. The parasite species was Plasmodium knowesi, a natural malaria parasite of South East Asian macaque monkeys (Macaca fascicularis and Macaca nemestrina) that has a 24 hour cycle in the blood and in the experimental host used for this work, M. mulatta,. (the rhesus monkey) it is highly synchronous, ie. almost all the schizonts burst within several hours (at mid day). The culture medium (Harvard Medium) was not ideal and many red cells do not show the normal discoid shape. Also, the poor state of the red cells made it difficult for parasites to complete the process of invasion before the red cells lysed (ie. leaked the cell contents).