- Laverania
- Old generic name for malaria-causing and other hematozoan protozoa. L. falciparum is a distinctive generic name for Plasmodium falciparum, and is preferred by some who believe that crescentic gametocytes should be the basis for classifying the causal agent of falciparum malaria in a separate genus. See Plasmodium, Haemoproteus. [C. Laveran, Fr. protozoologist and Nobel laureate, 1845–1922]
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Lav·er·a·nia .lav-ə-'rā-nyə n in some classifications a genus of malaria parasites of the family Plasmodiidae that is now usu. included in the genus PlasmodiumLa·ve·ran lȧv-rän Charles-Louis-Alphonse (1845-1922)French physician and parasitologist. Laveran began his career as an army surgeon and for a time taught military medicine. In 1880, while stationed in Algeria, he discovered the plasmodium parasite (Plasmodium falciparum) that causes falciparum malaria in humans. Some parasitologists classify the organism in a separate genus, Laverania, named in his honor. (Later, Sir Ronald Ross discovered that the malarial vector is the mosquito.) The author of over 600 scientific books and papers, Laveran went on to develop research in tropical medicine and did productive studies of trypanosomiasis, leishmaniasis, and other protozoal diseases and disease agents. From 1897, while at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, he did research on parasitic blood diseases in humans and animals. In 1907 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, and with the prize money he established the Laboratory of Tropical Diseases at the Institute.
Medical dictionary. 2011.
