Malaria is probably one of the oldest diseases, and it has been the scourge of populations in tropical and temperate-hot areas of the world since antiquity. It is also known by its French term, paludisme although the Italian name, malaria, more accurately describes the disease. The Italian term refers to mala aria, bad air, i.e., the miasmas evaporating from the stagnant waters of marshes, which the ancients believed were the origin of the disease. It was not until the second half of the nineteenth century that scientists started to search for the agent that gave rise to malaria. By then, optical instruments appropriate for this purpose had finally become available, and Robert Koch (18431910) and Louis Pasteur (18221895) had laid the foundations for scientifically based clinical microbiology
