Short answers, pulled from the story.
Ronald Ross proved the complete life cycle of the malaria parasite inside mosquitoes while working at the Presidency General Hospital in Calcutta. He isolated parasites from the salivary glands of mosquitoes that had fed on infected birds.
Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran observed parasites inside red blood cells for the first time in 1880 while working in Algeria. This observation marked the first time a protist was identified as causing human disease.
The parasite enters the bloodstream through the bite of an infected female Anopheles mosquito which prefers to feed at night starting at dusk. Inside the body sporozoites travel to the liver where they multiply into thousands of merozoites before bursting out to infect red blood cells.
Cerebral malaria affects the brain and causes confusion seizures or coma leading to death within forty-eight hours of the first symptoms if left untreated. Survivors may suffer long-term neurological damage including cognitive deficits and epilepsy.
Nigeria Democratic Republic of Congo Uganda Ethiopia and Mozambique together accounted for more than half of all malaria infections globally in 2024. Sub-Saharan Africa continued to bear ninety-five percent of global cases and deaths that year.