The Story of Malaria

Malaria is a mosquito borne illness caused by the female anopheles mosquito. Each year 350-500 million cases of malaria occur worldwide, and over one million people die, most of them young children in Africa south of the Sahara (CDC).

The British Medical Journal has uploaded a 10 minute YouTube video (Death by Mosquito) on the origins of malaria as we understand it now. Prior to the paper published in the BMJ in 1900, malaria was thought to be an airborne infection (mal = foul).

In 1900 Patrick Manson wrote a seminal paper in the BMJ Experimental Proof of the Mosquitomalaria Theory he worked closely with Ronald Ross, who went on to win the Nobel Prize for medicine for his work on malaria.


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2 Responses to “The Story of Malaria”

  1. Wellescent says:

    A very interesting video! Mind you, infecting one’s own child with malaria via infected mosquitoes is certainly on the more extreme end of medical research and demonstration of proof.

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  2. Wanda says:

    My little sis sister would like to know since I have not a clue does the killer Malaria mosquito live in Garrad County Kentucky United States? And I want to know do you get symptoms when it bites you and if so what are they or do you just instantly die?

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