Summaries

摘要

Although the spleen is known to play a central role in clearing plasmodial infections in animal models, its importance in defending against human malaria has never been clarified. Literature on the subject is scarce, and has been dependent largely upon case reports of malaria outcomes in splenec-tomized individuals: a series of four case reports from Thailand led to the conclusion that, at least in semi-immune individuals, the spleen may not be essential for parasite clearance.