World Mosquito Day
World Mosquito Day, celebrated annually on 20 August, is a remembrance of British doctor Sir Ronald Ross's finding in 1897 that female anopheline mosquitoes disseminate malaria between humans. Previous to the result of the transmitting organism, vector, there were few means for controlling the spread of the disease although the discovery of quinine in therapy had cleared the treatment problem. According to one survey, nearly half the world's population was at significant risk from malaria in the 19th century with a 10% mortality among those infected. Ross had already conducted experiments with Culex fed on birds infected with bird malaria Protesoma relictum in 1894. He noted that they developed in mosquito gut and had surmised that the same may happen in malaria.
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