Malaria

See this graphic of the complex malaria transmission lifecycle

Female Anopheles mosquitoes contract malaria by feeding on the blood of a human already infected with the disease-causing parasite. The parasite then develops in the mosquito's gut for one to two weeks before it migrates to the mosquito's salivary glands. Next, when the mosquito bites another person the parasite is delivered into the bloodstream of another human. This graphic further details what happens inside the human body during infection.

Hear what it's like to have malaria

In Kenya, as one malaria-sufferer explains, the disease is common enough that anytime a child has a fever or any sort of sickness families and the community will wonder if it's malaria. Sleeping under a mosquito net is recommended. Unfortunately, a gin and tonic will not keep malaria at bay.

Malaria comes from the Italian term 'mal'aria,' meaning 'bad air'

The term refers to marshy areas associated with the disease. An estimated 94% of malaria cases—215 million—occur in Africa.

The most severe form of malaria is caused by the Plasmodium falciparum parasite

Multiple species of a single-celled organism called a protozoa cause malaria infection when transmitted by a mosquito bite. But Plasmodium falciparum is the most widespread in Africa, and the most deadly.

Birds, rodents, monkeys, lizards, bats, apes, and livestock can all get malaria—just like humans.

There are two recommended malaria vaccines

Two vaccines are currently recommended by world health experts for children living in areas where malaria transmission is common. The first, RTS,S/ASO1, formally became recommended for use by the World Health Organization in October 2021, and the second was approved by the WHO two years later. Both have faced logistical, financial, and uptake challenges.

Malaria vaccines are not routine because they have limited effectiveness

Both of the currently recommended malaria vaccines have limited effectiveness, require multiple doses, and provide protection for only a short period of time. One, approved by the World Health Organization in 2021, is only about 30% effective, requires four doses, and protection fades within months. The other requires three shots, and some research indicates it is 75% effective for a year.

The mosquito's role in the transmission of malaria was confirmed in 1897

The British army doctor Ronald Ross, who later won the Nobel Prize for his work, was the first to describe the transmission of malarial parasites by mosquitoes. He had lab mosquitoes suck blood from malaria-infected people and separately found the malaria parasite inside a mosquito's gut, confirming the bug's role in malaria transmission.

A French Army surgeon discovered that malaria is a parasitic disease in 1880—but scientists were initially skeptical

Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran won the Nobel Prize for his work "on the role played by protozoa" in causing diseases. His work included discovering and reporting the malaria-causing parasite in the blood of a patient suffering from malaria.

Researchers are breeding genetically modified mosquitoes to be malaria-resistant

Using CRISPR, a team of international researchers is genetically modifying Anopheles in the lab to be malaria-resistant. The insects would be released into the wild to mate with the wild population, passing down this trait. As of early 2026 they had not yet released the mosquitoes into the wild for field trials. Separate CRISPR work seeks to reduce the Anopheles population altogether.