Monday May 04, 2009
How a Tiny Parasite Helped Shape History
Sonia Shah
AlterNet
Malaria has played a huge role in our past.
Last weekend, the mosquitoes emerged from the narrow stream that trickles by our house outside Baltimore, flitting around the ankles of my 9-year-old son, skipping stones with his pants rolled up to his knees.
These days, it's just a benign sign of warmer months to come, but it wasn't always so.
Not too long ago, the local Anopheles mosquitoes -- like dozens of mosquito species around the world today -- were just as likely to slip in a few Plasmodium parasites with their itchy bites, roiling their victims with the chills and fever named after the Italian for bad air, mal'aria.
read full story
Posted in: by bubblejam at 06:05 AM | Comments (0) | Email This Entry