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Discovery

Discovery of Malaria Transmission by Mosquitoes

Virological, Parasitological and Immunologic Discovery

On August 20, 1897, the British army physician Ronald Ross, working in India, found malaria parasites developing inside the gut of a mosquito that had fed on an infected patient, and the following year he traced the complete cycle of the parasite through a bird malaria model, establishing that mosquitoes are the vector by which malaria passes from one host to another. The finding overturned earlier theories that blamed bad air or direct contact for the disease's spread and gave public health authorities their first real basis for controlling malaria by attacking mosquito populations rather than the parasite alone. Ross received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1902 for this work.

Facts
Discovery YearSourced to the subject's own account
1897 1
DiscovererSourced to the subject's own account
Ronald Ross 1
Classification
Type/ClassificationSourced to the subject's own account
Disease Mechanism 1
Connections

Associated With

Malaria, Conditions

Discovered By

Ronald Ross, Healers
Sources
1. Ronald Ross (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia
  • Biography, 20 August 1897 confirmation
    On 20 August he confirmed the presence of the malarial parasite inside the gut of mosquito, which he originally identified as "dappled-wings".
  • entity description, Discovery of Malaria Transmission by Mosquitoes
    On August 20, 1897, the British army physician Ronald Ross, working in India, found malaria parasites developing inside the gut of a mosquito that had fed on an infected patient, and the following year he traced the complete cycle of the parasite through a bird malaria model, establishing that mosquitoes are the vector by which malaria passes from one host to another.
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