Malaria: The Deadliest

Plasmodium parasites ride into your bloodstream on a mosquito bite and cause malaria. It kills roughly 600,000 people every year, most of them young children, and almost all of them in sub-Saharan Africa.

No other parasite has shaped human history more. Across the centuries, malaria has likely claimed more lives than any war or famine ever did. It is still one of the deadliest infections on Earth today.

A Shape-Shifting Enemy

Plasmodium has one of the most cunning life cycles in nature. It breeds inside the mosquito, then hides and multiplies inside your liver and red blood cells.

Its best trick is disguise: it constantly changes the proteins on its surface, so your immune system never gets a clear, lasting picture of it. A single bite can seed an infection that explodes into billions of parasites.