**9. Placental malaria**

More than a hundred late-stage trophozoites or early schizont infected erythrocytes of *P. falciparum* in a case of placental malaria of a Tanzanian woman were found to form a nidus in an intervillous space of placenta. While such a concentration of parasite in placental malaria is rare, placental malaria cannot give rise to persistent infection as pregnancy in humans normally lasts only 9 months. We have also found this kind of placental infection in our own studies.[18]
