Changes in malaria parasite may make Africans more susceptible

People with genetic protection from Plasmodium vivax have begun to fall ill

WASHINGTON — A form of malaria largely absent in sub-Saharan Africa has begun to make inroads there. Ominous signals are emerging simultaneously in population studies and under the microscope that Plasmodium vivax, a malaria parasite well known in Asia and Latin America, may have found a way to infect Africans.