Relating to the stage of a parasite's life cycle that occurs outside of red blood cells.
From Greek 'exo-' meaning 'outside' combined with 'erythrocytic' (from Greek 'erythros' red + 'kytos' cell). The term describes parasites like malaria that develop in the liver and other tissues, not in blood cells.
When malaria parasites first infect you, they hide in your liver cells doing their exoerythrocytic stage for a week before invading your red blood cells—doctors now have drugs that can kill them while they're hiding!
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