Central Mass Mosquito Control | Mosquito Protection

The Impact of Malaria, Past and Present

According to the World Health Organization, there were 290,000 cases of malaria in 2019.  This deadly mosquito-borne illness is nothing new. The parasite that causes malaria was discovered in 1880, by French military doctor, Alphonse Laveran.  It took 17 years for Sir Ronald Ross to determine that this parasite was transmitted to humans by mosquitoes.  He dissected the stomach tissue of a mosquito, which had fed on an infected patient for four days, and found the parasite therein.  Since then, preventive medications and cures have been developed for this mosquito-borne disease.  Even so, there are more than 400,000 deaths reported each year.  These numbers are what make mosquitoes the deadliest animals on the planet.

Is malaria still a threat?

Malaria is a potentially fatal mosquito-borne illness with a long history.  The parasites responsible for malaria infection were first identified around 1880.  Since then, mosquitoes carrying these parasites have been found preserved in amber, believed to be 30,000,000 years old.  Is malaria still a threat? Even though malaria was eliminated in the United States in the early 1950’s, it remains a threat in other parts of the world today.  There were more than 400,000 known malaria deaths throughout the world in 2018.  More than 90% of malaria deaths occurred in sub-Saharan Africa.