Time to drop the term 'simian malaria parasites'

Richard Culleton; Geoffrey Ian McFadden

doi:10.1016/j.pt.2023.11.010

Time to drop the term 'simian malaria parasites'

Trends Parasitol. 2024 Feb;40(2):100-101. doi: 10.1016/j.pt.2023.11.010. Epub 2023 Dec 20.

Authors

Richard Culleton¹, Geoffrey Ian McFadden²

Affiliations

¹ Division of Parasitology, Proteo-Science Centre, Ehime University, Ehime, Japan. Electronic address: culleton.richard.oe@ehime-u.ac.jp.
² School of BioSciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC 3010, Australia.

PMID: 38129281
DOI: 10.1016/j.pt.2023.11.010

Abstract

The term 'simian malaria parasites' has crept into the modern malaria literature as a synonym for 'non-human primate malaria parasites', most commonly referring to species of Plasmodium infective to Old World monkeys. As humans are also simians, we contend that this usage is erroneous, and should not be used.

Keywords: Plasmodium; malaria; primate; simian; terminology.

MeSH terms

Animals
Humans
Malaria*
Parasites*
Plasmodium*
Primates