Malaria (Medieval Italian: mala aria — "bad air") and formerly called ague or marsh fever in English, is an infectious disease which causes about 350–500 million infections in humans and approximately 1.3–3 million deaths annuallyCampbell, Neil A. et al. "Biology" Seventh edition. Menlo Park, CA: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc. 2005 — at least one death every 30 seconds. Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 85–90% of these fatalities,Scott P. Layne, M.D. UCLA Department of Epidemiology, "Principles of Infectious Disease Epidemiology / EPI 220" the vast majority of which occur in children under the age of 5 years. The death rate is expected to double in the next 20 years.Hull, Kevin. (2006) "Malaria: Fever Wars". PBS Documentary Precise statistics are unknown because many cases occur in rural areas where people do not have access to hospitals and/or the means to afford health care. Consequently, many cases are undocumented.Hull, Kevin. (2006) "Malaria: Fever Wars". PBS Documentary

Malaria is caused by protozoan parasites of the genus Plasmodium (phylum Apicomplexa): P. falciparum, P. malariae, P. ovale, and P. vivax. Their primary hosts and transmission vectors are female mosquitos of genus Anopheles; humans act as intermediate hosts. The P. falciparum variety of the parasite accounts for 80% of cases and 90% of deaths. Children under the age of five and pregnant women are the most vulnerable to the severe forms of malaria.

History

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In 1880, French army doctor Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran proposed that malaria was caused by a protozoan, the first time protozoa was identified as causing a disease. For this and later discoveries, he was awarded the 1907 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. A year later, Carlos Finlay, a Cuban doctor treating patients with yellow fever in Havana, first suggested that mosquitoes were transmitting disease to humans. Britain's Sir Ronald Ross showed in 1898 that certain mosquito species transmit malaria to birds and received the 1902 Nobel Prize in Medicine for describing the life cycle of the malarial parasite. The findings of Finlay were later confirmed by a medical board headed by Walter Reed in 1900, and its recommendations implemented by William C. Gorgas in the health measures undertaken during construction of the Panama Canal.

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