Word: plasmodium
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...nature fought back, however. War in Southeast Asia and political instability in countries like Idi Amin's Uganda interfered with eradication efforts. Premature reports of success against malaria led some health authorities to relax their vigilance. Then came the worst blows of all: in the mid-1960s, Plasmodium falciparum, the most lethal of the four species of parasite that cause human malaria, showed signs of becoming resistant to chloroquine. Soon there were resistant strains on three continents. About the same time, health officials around the Mediterranean began to find mosquitoes that were immune to DDT. It was a classic...
...largely come to a halt during the years that chloroquine and DDT seemed all conquering. But Dr. Ruth Nussenzweig of N.Y.U. continued to pursue a malaria vaccine, a goal many viewed as impossible. The malaria bug presented unique obstacles. The first was the complex life cycle of the Plasmodium parasite, which is in a sense three bugs in one (see diagram): the sporozoite, which enters the human bloodstream when an infected mosquito bites; the merozoite, which invades the red blood cells and causes the disease's chills and fever; and the gametocyte, which, when ingested by a biting mosquito...