The Story of Malaria

In the previous unit we looked at health in an overall manner not just the physical health. We also saw ways in which we can protect ourselves from getting some diseases. To effectively protect ourselves from diseases it is sometimes important to understand what causes the disease.

In this unit we will look at the story of discovery of the organism that causes malaria.

Even though a cure for malaria has been known for a long time, it remains one of the deadliest diseases in the world today. Every year many people die from this disease in our country.
When a person suffers from malaria he/she gets high fever. Some types of malaria cause a high fever after every 48 hours, whereas, one type of malaria can cause rise in fever daily. The high fever and severe chills can make the patient very weak. We now know that female anopheles mosquitoes can carry the organisms which cause malaria. But it took humans many years to identify what causes malaria. People all over the world contributed to what we know today.
This is the story of discovery of malaria...