A disease caused by the parasitic protozoan Plasmodium, which requires two hosts, the bloodsucking female Anopheles mosquito and a human, in order to complete its complex life cycle. Symptoms of fever and anaemia in humans are caused by invasion and destruction of the red blood cells during an asexual phase of the life cycle. See apicomplexa.

https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/malaria/index.html Coverage of all aspects of malaria, from the website of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention