Aiding a disaster

Along with problems associated with unhealthy living conditions and drug resistance, tuberculosis poses an additional danger as it has targeted HIV carriers. As such, TB is a leading cause of death due to a single infectious agent. In the developing world, the annual incidence of all forms of TB is 7.3 million.

Death's agent

Historical ills Malaria It has been hypothesised that the malarial parasite evolved either with humans or even earlier. Hippocrates wrote about it in the 5th century BC. In India, Ayurvedic gurus' Charaka and Susruta related malaria to mosquito bites. For 2,000 years, the Chinese have been using extracts from the qinghaosu plant as a remedy. Around AD 1500, the Peruvian Indians used the bark of cinchona, from which quinine is extracted, as the cure.

Rising trend

Right from the '60s, DDT resistance of the malaria parasite host, Anopheles culicifacies, was detected in Gujarat. It was a rising trend. Another important vector, A stephensi, became so rugged that it can now grow in stagnant water found in coolers, used tyres -- just about anywhere.