QUESTION Who was the discoverer of malaria? ANSWER Malaria has been known to humans since ancient times, though what exactly caused it and how it was transmitted was not known. The parasite which causes malaria, from the genus Plasmodium, was first observed in the blood of a patient who had died from the disease by Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran, a French physician working in Algeria. … [Read more...]
Malaria Origins
QUESTION What is the origin of malaria? ANSWER Malaria is caused by a single-celled parasite of the genus Plasmodium. There are five difference species of Plasmodium which infect humans - these all likely evolved from various different species of Plasmodium which infect other primates, such as gorillas (for P. falciparum) and macaques (P. vivax, P. knowlesi, possibly other types as well). … [Read more...]
Discovery of Malaria
QUESTION How was malaria discovered? ANSWER Malaria has long been known to human populations from across the world. In fact, the first mention of the symptoms of malaria comes from an ancient Chinese manuscript from 2700 BCE! However, the actual cause and mechanism of transmission of the disease was only discovered in the 19th century. It was Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran, a French … [Read more...]
First Malaria Outbreak
QUESTION When was the first ever outbreak of malaria? ANSWER Malaria has actually been known in human populations for thousands of years, so the first ever outbreak occurred long before any records were kept. The ancient Chinese recorded the symptoms of malaria in a medical manuscript which dates back to 2700 BCE, so almost 5000 years ago! The symptoms of malaria were also known to … [Read more...]
What year was the cause of malaria discovered?
QUESTION When did they find out that a bug bite caused malaria, and what year was that? ANSWER In 1880, Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran observed that malaria was caused by a parasite in the blood; it wasn't until 1897-1898 that Ronald Ross, a British Army medical doctor, discovered that the parasite could be transmitted between hosts (he used birds for his experiments) by mosquitoes. … [Read more...]
Malaria and Nkadu Luo
QUESTION When did professor Nkadu Luo discover that female mosquito causes malaria? ANSWER Professor Nkadu Luo is a microbiologist and immunologist in Zambia. Most of her work has been on HIV/AIDS and sickle cell anaemia. She has also been a key figure in promoting screening of blood banks in Zambia for infectious diseases such as HIV and malaria. However, the discovery that female … [Read more...]
First Cases of Malaria
QUESTION When was malaria first detected? ANSWER Humans have known about malaria as a disease for thousands of years. The earliest written record of malaria is from ancient China, 2700 BCE. The ancient Romans and Greeks also described the symptoms of malaria, though none of these ancient people knew the true cause or had identified specifically how it was transmitted. This was first … [Read more...]
Who Discovered Malaria?
QUESTION Who discovered malaria? ANSWER People have known about malaria for thousands of years—the first record of it comes from 2700 BCE, in an ancient Chinese medical text. Other ancient peoples, such as the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, also knew the symptoms associated with malaria. But it wasn't until the 19th century that the causes of malaria were understood. In 1880, a … [Read more...]
How did it get the name “malaria”?
QUESTION How did malaria get its name? ANSWER The word "malaria" comes from Italian, "mala aria" which literally translates to "bad air". This came from the ancient association, traced back as far as the ancient Greeks and Romans, that the disease was associated with swampy, marshy areas where the air smelled bad. The mechanism of transmission was not known back then, nor did they … [Read more...]
History of Fighting Malaria
QUESTION What are some examples of attempts of fighting this disease that happened in the past? ANSWER The battle against malaria has been going on, in one form or another, for literally thousands of years. The ancient Chinese mention the symptoms of the disease in a medical scroll as early as 2700 BCE - even more remarkably, a herb called Artemesia has been used in traditional Chinese … [Read more...]