I have been observing a "supposed" Plasmodium berghei for some time now. I see some red blood cells stained (with Geimsa) darker indicating presence of a parasite, but my supervisor thinks a need to see a "happy" ring before we confirm that the stained ones are P. berghei. Is the ring stage the only feature to detect a P. berghei?
You need to visualize the parasite in one of the three blood stage types to confirm by microscopy presence of the P. berghei infection. The ring stage which is the young blood stage has, as your professor says, the ''happy'' ring (blue cytoplasm) and a single red dot (chromosome). However you can also observe the asexually dividing stage (schizonts) in the form of a ball of 12- 18 parasites in the RBC (you can count the red dots you see) and gamete stage which is much less prevalent than the other two. I assume you are asking only within the erythrocytic cycle..
Thank you very much Caroline. I am talking about the erythrocytic stage. Can the other stages apart from the ring stage be used to calculate total parasitaemia?
Each infected RBC, irrespective of whether it is ring trophozoite, ring, or schizont stage, is to be used to calculate total parasitemia
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