Today is world malaria day, Africa continues to account for about 90% of cases and deaths worldwide.
Investing more in the development and deployment of a new generation of malaria tools is key to achieving the 2030 global malaria targets.
But do you know who established malaria cause?
Sir Ronald Ross, in 1897, was the first to establish that mosquitoes and not climatic conditions cause malaria. It revolutionized the way malaria was perceived, prevented and cured.
He was awarded Nobel Prize in 1902 for the discovery made in Calcutta.
In 1892 he became interested in malaria and, having originally doubted the parasites’ existence, became an enthusiastic convert to the belief that malaria parasites were in the blood stream .
when this was demonstrated to him by Patrick Manson during a period of home leave in 1894. Sir Patrick Manson is considered by many to be the father of tropical medicine.
He was the first person to demonstrate, in 1878, that a parasite that causes human disease could infect a mosquito in this case, the filarial worm that causes elephantiasis.
He was also physician to the Seamen’s Hospital Society, the Medical Advisor to the Colonial Office, and later the founder of the London School of Tropical Medicine and the Hong Kong College of Medicine.