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Why can malaria enlarge the spleen?
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malaria
Life cycle of a malaria parasite.
Malaria causes the spleen to enlarge—a condition known as splenomegaly—primarily because of the organ's role in filtering the blood.12
In a malaria infection, the Plasmodium parasite invades and destroys red blood cells. Because the spleen is the organ responsible for ridding the body of degenerate and old blood cells, it must work significantly harder to process the high volume of damaged cells resulting from the infection. This increased workload, combined with the retention of red blood cells within the splenic tissue, leads to the organ becoming engorged and enlarged.213