Although the control measures he advocated were effective toward reducing malaria in certain locales (Panama, Mauritius), in other places they failed to do much good (Sierra Leone, India) or the results were transitory. For all his honors, for all his mathematical skills, for all his combative ambition and obsessive hard work, Ronald Ross couldn’t conquer malaria, nor even provide a strategy by which such an absolute victory would eventually be won. He may have understood why: because it’s such an intricate disease, deeply entangled with human social and economic considerations as well as
...more
Why malaria couldn't be arrested by math alone
