Malaria diseases and parasites

The milestones in the discovery of malaria parasites and their relationships with malaria diseases are presented and discussed with particular reference to the contribution of the Italian scientists. Laveran's discovery (1880) of the malaria parasite produced some schepticism among the Roman scientists who were under the influence of Tommasi-Crudeli, the discoverer of the supposed Bacillus malariae. However, Marchiafava and Celli confirmed soon Laveran's observations and, between 1883 and 1885, improved the description of the parasite adding important details. They described, then, the aestivo-autumnal tertian fever as a distinct disease from the 'primaverile' or benign tertian. This work influenced Golgi who went on to analyse the features that distinguish the benign tertian parasite from that of the quartan. The fact that in North Italy the aestivo-autumnal tertian fever was hardly ever found, whereas it was common in the Roman Campagna and the Pontin marshes, explains why it was Celli and Marchiafava and later Bignami and Bastianelli, and Marchiafava and Bignami - but not Golgi - who were committed to work on this pernicious form of malaria. By the early 1890s the Italian scientists came to define the three malaria parasites, presently known as Plasmodium vivax, Fl malariae, and P. falciparum. and to associate them with precise anatomo-pathological and clinical features. By the middle 1890s the Italian school was prepared to contribute also to the discovery of the mosquito cycle in human malaria, clearly hypothesized by Bignami in 1896 and experimentally proved in 1898 by Bignami, Bastianelli and Grassi.