World Mosquito Day: All you need to know about it

World Mosquito Day is observed on 20 August to mark the historic discovery by British doctor Sir Ronald Ross in 1897 that malaria is transmitted between humans by female Anopheles mosquitoes.

His discovery laid the foundations for scientists across the world to better understand the deadly role of mosquitoes in disease transmission and come up with effective innovative interventions.

Sir Ronald Ross was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine for his work on malaria in 1902.

Here are some facts related to malaria and Sir Ronald Ross

• World mosquito day honours the malaria work of Sir Ronald Ross.

• Sir Ronald Ross was born on May 13, 1857 in Almora, India.

• The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine holds Mosquito Day celebrations every year.

• The World Health Organization estimates that in 2013 malaria caused 198 million clinical episodes, and 500,000 deaths.

• Four times, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded for work associated with malaria: to Sir Ronald Ross (1902), Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran (1907), Julius Wagner-Jauregg (1927), and Paul Hermann Müller (1948).

• Two important currently used antimalarial drugs are derived from plants whose medicinal values had been noted for centuries: artemisinin from the Qinghaosu plant (Artemisia annua, China, 4th century) and quinine from the cinchona tree (Cinchona spp., South America, 17th century).