"Cryptosporidium" causes cryptosporidiosis, an infection that may present as a diarrhoeal with or without a persistent cough in immunocompetent hosts. Other apicomplexan pathogens include the malaria parasite "Plasmodium" and the toxoplasmosis parasite "Toxoplasma". Unlike "Plasmodium", which transmits via a mosquito vector, "Cryptosporidium" does not use an insect vector, and is capable of completing its lifecycle within a single host, resulting in cyst stages that are excreted in feces or through inhalation of coughed on fomites and are capable of transmission to a new host.