How was the cause of malaria discovered?

The discovery of the cause of malaria was a landmark achievement in medical history, involving the identification of both the causative parasite and its mode of transmission.

In 1880, French physician Alphonse Laveran, while working in Algeria, identified the cause of malaria by observing parasites within the red blood cells of infected patients. He identified the organism as a protozoan, which was later named Plasmodium.21

The understanding of how this parasite is transmitted was established later through the work of British bacteriologist Sir Ronald Ross. In 1897, Ross discovered the presence of malarial parasites in the gastrointestinal tract of an Anopheles mosquito. By studying infected birds, he successfully mapped the parasite's life cycle and demonstrated that the disease is transmitted through the bite of a mosquito. Shortly thereafter, in 1898, Giovanni Grassi and his colleagues confirmed that the parasite of human malaria is also carried by the Anopheles mosquito.21

These discoveries were fundamental to developing public health strategies, such as mosquito control, to combat the disease.21