See Also: malaria(dictionary)
Malaria(medicine)
malaria(encyclopedia)
malaria(dictionary)
Malaria(health)
quotidian malaria(medicine)
quartan malaria(medicine)
pernicious malaria(medicine)
nonan malaria(medicine)
monkey malaria(medicine)

malaria (iou)



malaria noun. M18.
[Italian mal' aria = mala aria bad air.]
Orig., an unwholesome condition of the atmosphere in hot countries due to the exhalations of marshes, to which fevers were ascribed. Now (also malaria fever), any of a class of intermittent and remittent febrile diseases formerly supposed to result from this cause, but now known to be due to infection with parasitic protozoans of the genus Plasmodium, transmitted by the bite of a mosquito of the genus Anopheles.
quartan malaria: see QUARTAN adjective. tertian malaria: see TERTIAN adjective 1.
fig.: T. C. Grattan A sort of moral malaria pervading society and carrying off many victims.
Comb.: malaria fever: see above; malaria parasite a parasitic protozoan of the genus Plasmodium, causing malaria.