a condition in which parasites are present in the blood

The presence of parasites in the blood. The term can also be used to express the quantity of parasites in the blood (e.g., "a parasitemia of 2%").

The presence of parasites in the circulating blood; used especially with reference to malarial and other protozoan forms, and microfilariae.

Parasitemia is the quantitative content of parasites in the blood. It is used as a measurement of parasite load in the organism and an indication of the degree of an active parasitic infection. Systematic measurement of parasitemia is important in many phases of the assessment of disease, such as in diagnosis and in the follow-up of therapy, particularly in the chronic phase, when cure depends on ascertaining a parasitemia of zero.