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Medical Definition of Simian malaria
1. Plasmodial infection of monkeys and apes, as with human malaria, transmitted chiefly by anopheline mosquitoes; a number of Plasmodium species are responsible, with Southeast Asia and Africa being the apparent centres of evolution; among the 20 plasmodial agents described from nonhuman primates, some resemble and induce a malarial infection similar to those caused by the four species of Plasmodium from humans, from which the agents of human malaria appear to be derived. Synonym: monkey malaria. (05 Mar 2000)