by Malaria Q&A
QUESTION:
Who found that malaria was caused by a mosquito?
ANSWER:
The man who first discovered that malaria was transmitted by mosquitoes was a British Army doctor called Ronald Ross. Working in India in 1897-1898, Ross demonstrated how malaria parasites could be transmitted first between a patient and a mosquito, and then between hosts via mosquitoes (this latter work was done using birds). Ronald Ross was honoured with the Nobel Prize in 1902 for his discoveries.
by Malaria Q&A
QUESTION:
What is the origin of malaria?
ANSWER:
Malaria is caused by a single-celled parasite called Plasmodium; different species cause the different forms of malaria we see in different parts of the world. Malaria has been in existence for millions of years; it likely evolved from similar infections in other apes. Ancient people recognised the symptoms of malaria as early as 2700 BCE, when it was first described in a Chinese medical text. The ancient Romans, Greeks and Egyptians also knew about it, but it wasn’t until the 19th century when the causative agents were first seen in a patient’s blood by a French surgeon called Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran. A few years later, a British Army doctor called Ronald Ross first discovered that the parasites were transmitted via mosquitoes. He won the Nobel Prize for his work in 1902.
by Malaria Q&A
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 French surgeon called Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran stationed in Algeria was the first person to see the parasites that cause malaria in the blood of an infected person. Then, a few years later, in 1897/1898, a British army doctor called Ronald Ross discovered that mosquitoes transmitted the parasites between patients. This allowed for further clarification of the life cycle of malaria, and thus opened up the path for modern malaria research and control.
by Malaria Q&A
QUESTION:
Which doctor first found that Anopheles mosquitoes transmitted malaria?
ANSWER:
The first person to show conclusively that malaria could be transmitted by Anopheles mosquitoes was Ronald Ross (later knighted in 1911 for his services to medicine).
Working in the Presidency General Hospital in Calcutta (Sir Ronald was born in India and joined the Indian Medical Services in 1881 after studying medicine in London), he observed malaria parasites in the salivary glands of mosquitoes that had been fed on infected birds. This was in 1898, and he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology in 1902 based on this discovery. A medical board in 1900 later confirmed his findings, and provided recommendations for the control of malaria, some of which were instrumental in limiting the impact of the disease on workers employed to construct the Panama Canal.
The parasite that causes malaria, of the genus Plasmodium, had been identified in 1880 by the French doctor Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran, who had observed the parasites in the red blood cells of infected patients in Algeria.