Malaria and the globalization of disease

May 18, 2022 marked the centenary of the death of Alphonse Laveran, laureate of the Nobel Prize in Medicine and discoverer of the protozoan causing malaria that has claimed hundreds of millions of lives throughout the world since time began. Few diseases have left such a lasting legacy on the history and lives of humans as malaria. This parasitic disease, which tends to follow a seasonal pattern rather than giving rise to intermittent outbreaks, owes its name to the Italian mala aria, meaning "bad air" – reflecting the once widely held belief that stagnant water in marshes was capable of polluting the air and making it unsafe to breathe.

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Image : Planche sur le paludisme signée Laveran