Question: When was Malaria discovered?

Ailsa Powell answered on 18 Jun 2011:

Malaria is a disease older than humans; monkeys and apes suffered from it before humans evolved from them. It has always been a disease that humans have suffered from.

Interestingly the connection to mosquitos is fairly recent. Up until the 19th century it was assumed that the bad smelling air from swamps caused the disease, the name Malaria comes from the old Italian mal’aria which means “bad air”. It wasn’t until 1880 that someone made the discovery that parasites were responsible for the disease and then in 1897 the link to mosquito bites transferring the parasites to people was made. So in terms of the entire history of the disease it’s only very recently, the last 110 years or so, since we’ve known what causes it and can make better progress in preventing and treating the disease.

Hope that answers your question 🙂