Read The Fever: How Malaria Has Ruled Humankind for 500,000 Years for Free Online Page B

boy died. Since 1996, Taylor and her colleagues have been conducting an extraordinary study in which the bodies of children who died of malaria are autopsied and scrutinized for clues to the series of events that led to their deaths.Duke’s brain is riddled with tiny spots, signs of some epic battle with the falciparum parasite. “Is that what killed him?” I ask. Taylor isn’t sure, even holding the boy’s brain in her hands. “I have no idea,” she says softly, swishing the container.
    Before I leave, Taylor insists I see the miscreant itself. “Show her how pretty the parasites are in red cells!” she instructs the lab tech. Peering into a microscope focused on a drop of infected blood, falciparum parasites are clearly visible. For Taylor it is an image fraught with mystery and power. “They’re beautiful!” she blurts.
    I go to find my bicycle, locked outside. The rain has started, and as I hurry through the halls, earthy odors rise through the moist air. Soon the rain is pounding on the corrugated tin roof, and I must wait. An orange dog similarly takes cover under the eaves in the gulley, trying not to get wet.
    There’s a tiny room in the hospital, at the end of a hall filled with desultory waiting patients, where the facility’s medical records are kept. Despite the caprice of the pathogens that stalk its patients, the enduring mystery of how they kill, each piece of paper describing the carnage finds its way there and is collected into eight-inch piles, carefully tied with string. Part of Duke’s story, like that of thousands of others like him, certainly rests in those pages, a final whisper of his short life after his distraught family trekked back home to their village. Researchers such as Terrie Taylor extract bits into computerized databases in hopes of one day deciphering those yellowing stacks. For now, they line the walls of the tiny room from floor to ceiling. The rain ends as abruptly as it started. The door is ajar as I pass by on my way to the exit, and I glimpse the shelves, buckling under the weight.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
     
    Most every malariologist I approached in connection with this book was patient, generous, and forthright. Among them, Terrie Taylor in Malawi, José Calzada in Panama City, and the late Andy Spielman of Harvard University were especially so. I thank them heartily. For their enthusiastic research assistance, thanks to Peter Ross, Lukas Rieppel, Mónica García, Emily Tucker, and Annie Jack; for early financial assistance, the Nation Institute and the Puffin Foundation; for their tips and their support, Carolyn and David Bulmer, Loie Hayes and Julie Ogletree, Darwin Marcus Johnson, Brian King, Hasmukh and Hansa Shah, and Susy Wasiak.
    Much gratitude goes to Sarah Crichton, whose editorial acumen greatly improved this book, and to the malaria experts Wallace Peters, Prabhjot Singh, Malcolm Molyneux, and Arba Ager, who generously helped improve its accuracy. And to my agents, Charlotte Sheedy and Anthony Arnove, who supported this book from the beginning. Without them, it would not have been written.
    Finally, I thank Mark, Zakir, and Kush Bulmer for sustaining me through years of researching and writing about malaria, suffering many mosquito bites along the way.

INDEX
     
    The index that appeared in the print version of this title was intentionally removed from the eBook. Please use the search function on your eReading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.
     
Ackerknecht, Erwin
Adongo, Philip
Adrian VI, Pope
Aedes
mosquitoes;
A. aegypti
Afghanistan
Africa Fighting Malaria
African slaves
Agency for International Development, U.S. (USAID)
agriculture; in Africa; drainage of wetlands for; in India; in Italy; pesticide use in
Agriculture, U.S. Department of (USDA)
AIDS
Alabama; during Civil War; Supreme Court of; University of
Alabama Power Company
Alaric the Visigoth
Alexander VI,