Malaria is spread by mosquitos?

Summary

We all know that malaria is an infectious disease spread by mosquitos. Female Anopheles mosquitos spread the infection, a microorganism called a plasmodium, when taking a blood meal. But as the quotation often attributed to Mark Twain says “What gets us into trouble is not what we don’t know. It’s what we know for sure that just ain’t so”.

Malaria remains a serious illness in many parts of the world, blamed for 600,000 deaths per year. In this book Ulick Stafford investigates evidence about the mosquito-plasmodium hypothesis for its transmission and other potential causes or contributory factors. He looks at the early history of the illness. He reports on the early research of Laveran, Ross and Grassi who developed the accepted transmission story. The potential collateral damage caused by current treatment and prevention programmes are discussed. The contributory effects of other factors, in particular malnutrition are introduced.