QUESTION What is malaria and when was it diagnosed? ANSWER Malaria is a disease caused by a single-celled parasite of the genus Plasmodium. Five types of malaria infect humans: P. falciparum, P. ovale, P. vivax, P. malariae and P. knowlesi. It was first observed in the blood of a patient who had died of malaria in 1880 by Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran, a French physician working in … [Read more...]
Who discovered the disease malaria?
QUESTION: Who discovered the malaria disease and when? ANSWER: Malaria has been known for thousands of years; there are written accounts of the disease, including a description of its symptoms, in ancient Chinese medical texts from 2700 BCE. The ancient Romans and Greeks also knew about malaria. However, the causes of the disease were only discovered in the 19th century. In 1880, a … [Read more...]