Malaria has been a terrible human disease from before the neolithic period up to present day. It has likely caused more human deaths than any other infectious agent. If realised, malaria eradication could be amongst humankind’s most significant achievements.
Malaria is caused by parasites in the genus Plasmodium, of which there are five different species that infect humans. These parasites enter the female Anopheles mosquitoes (males don’t bite humans) when they feed on the blood of an infected human. Plasmodium must then cross the Anopheles mosquito’s gut and become established in their salivary glands, at which point it can be transmitted to another human when the mosquito feeds again.
Globally, the burden of malaria has decreased by about half this century, but in recent years, the rate of malaria gains have slowed and there is a serious risk of biological threats. For instance, some malaria mosquitoes are evolving resistance to insecticides used in bed nets. Read more…
