Microbial Misadventures is a recurring series on Body Horrors looking at instances and incidents where human meets microbe in novel and unusual circumstances that challenge our assumptions about how infections are spread.
Shout “fire” in a crowded room and watch the occupants fly for the exits. Speak the word “malaria” and watch as all within earshot reach for the nearest can of DEET. The incontrovertible fact of malaria’s relationship with mosquitos is one that has been known since Sir Ronald Ross discovered the parasite nesting within the belly of a mosquito in 1897. Such is the natural order, an incontestable necessity of the protozoan parasite’s life cycle. Humans, however, are rather adept at bucking that system - see cronuts, labradoodles, and the college bowl ranking system for examples. Also due to the interference of mankind, as a 1995 Taiwanese medical mystery proved, malaria can indeed be spread without the assistance of their obnoxious arthropod cronies.
A photomicrograph of Plasmodium malariae showing the merozoite stage of the parasite's life cycle. These red blood cells will release merozoite that will eventually develop into male and female gametocytes. Image: CDC. Malaria is a protozoan parasite of the rather large genus Plasmodium that has long exploited the tenuous relationship between humans and mosquitos for its own unscrupulous replicative means, infecting humans through the the efficient delivery system of the mosquito’s syringe-like proboscis. This disease is nothing new; it has plagued humans since the time of Hippocrates when the Romans avoided the stretch of Pontine marshes for fear of contracting the “bad air” from which malaria derives its name.
