Health & biology · 1897

Mosquito transmits malaria

Ronald Ross found malaria parasites in the gut of a mosquito, revealing how the disease spreads.

Ross's 1897 discovery in India, with Giovanni Battista Grassi's work in Italy, showed insects can carry disease. It redirected control efforts toward mosquitoes and drainage, and later insecticides.

See it in the living tree Wikipedia

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 1

Koch's bacteriology 1876

What it led to 1

DDT insecticide 1939

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

Child mortality (under 5) Latest: 3.74 % (2024) Source: Our World in Data

Life expectancy at birth Latest: 73.2 years (2023) Source: Our World in Data