Consider Memories Embedded in Trends

Written By Kate Mendez

A 1943 Illustration of "Bloodthirsty Ann."

Source: National Library of Medicine.

My mother had malaria twice as a child. She told me it “had always been” a serious problem in the South. I knew this from studying the Civil War, when malaria affected hundreds of thousands of soldiers. But thinking about my mother’s experience as part of a trend over time showed how little I really knew.

In malaria research, certain facts rise to the top, notably the 1942 creation of the Malaria Control Office, located in Atlanta near large military bases where malaria disrupted training of troops. Raised in the Army, I remember trucks in the 1960s that weekly sprayed thick insecticide clouds during the warm months (even in Maryland). But I wasn’t aware of the massive antimalarial program the Office launched during wartime, which included the clever “Keep Your Shirt On Soldier” campaign. And I never would have guessed Dr. Seuss was critical to the program’s mission! Army Captain Theodore Geisel wrote and illustrated a widely disseminated humorous booklet aimed at educating GIs about Bloodthirsty Ann, his name for the malaria-spreading Anopheles Mosquito.

Even cursory research reveals a second fact: the current and devastating impact of malaria worldwide. Yet, one has to dig deeper to know malaria has returned to the U.S., despite its 1950s eradication. In 2023, we had at least nine unrelated cases – seven in Florida, one in Texas, one in Maryland. The southern cases were the first locally acquired occurrences in 20 years; the Maryland case was the first there in 40 years.

Having just started to delve into the complicated topic of malaria, I have so many questions. Was malaria always on our continent? If not, how did it get here? When did someone figure out that mosquitoes caused it? We knew by the late 1920s that standing water was a problem – hence New Deal programs that cleared swamps – but why did it take WWII to really turn things around? How does a disease that was “eradicated” in the U.S. seven decades ago return? What can we learn from these questions?

Kate Mendez
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