On August 20, 1897, while in Secunderabad, India, Ronald Ross made his landmark discovery that malaria parasites were found in the stomach tissue of an anapheline mosquito which he was dissecting, The insect had been feeding for 4 days prior on the blood of a malarious patient. He went on to demonstrate that the malaria parasite is transmitted from infected birds to healthy ones through the bite of a mosquito, a finding that suggested the disease’s mode of transmission to humans, and for which he received the 1902 Nobel Prize in Medicine “for his work on malaria, by which he has shown how it enters the organism and thereby has laid the foundation for successful research on this disease and methods of combating it”. Ross was knighted 1911. [1, 3, 4, 5]
On August 10, 1899 Major Ross published in Nature that it is now confirmed certain species of mosquito transmit the malaria parasite. His results being accepted by Dr. Laveran, the discoverer of the parasites of malaria and others. [8, 9] Ross concluded:
“It may therefore be finally accepted as a fact that malaria is communicated by the bites of some species of mosquito…
Hence it follows that, in order to eliminate malaria wholly or partly from a given locality, it is necessary only to exterminate the various species of insect which carry the infection. This will certainly remove the malaria to a large extent, and will almost certainly remove it altogether. It remains only to consider whether such a measure is practicable.
By mid 1900 Leland Howard of the USDA capitalised on the public health benefits for widespread chemical control of mosquitos.