Monday 13 October 2008

You give me fever...


I heard on the World Service news over the weekend that an international team of scientists have deciphered the genetic code for Plasmodium vivax, one of the four parasites which cause malaria. This is said to be a huge breakthrough in understanding the life cycles in both mosquitoes and humans and could lead to "malaria-resistant" mosquitoes in the future.
Looking back to early research on malaria, it was Ronald Ross(pictured,1857-1932), who joined the Indian Medical Service in 1881, who made the discovery in August 1897 that malaria was transmitted through the bite of an infected mosquito. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1902. You can read two volumes by Ross here on the Medical History of British India web feature

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