Cross-species regulation of Plasmodium parasitaemia cross-examined

The analysis of unique longitudinal data of Plasmodium parasites in Papua New Guinean children led to the postulation that a nonspecific density-dependent mechanism is generally implicated in regulating the parasite load. The necessity to postulate such a mechanism given the acknowledged species- and strain-specificity of antimalarial immunity is discussed through a critical assessment of these data and the hypothesis.