There are some scholars who believe the decline and fall of the Roman Empire was not due to moral decadence but to the debilitating effects of malaria.
Malaria was once widespread through Europe but is not longer endemic there.
The Romans believed the disease was due to the effects of the bad air, or “mal aria” arising from the swamps outside Rome. These swamps were the breeding ground of the anopheles mosquito, which spreads the disease to man.
A protazoa, or small one-celled animal, Plasmodium, causes the disease. There are four types of Plasmodium, P. ovale, P. falciparum, P. vivax and P. malariae, which can affect man and the falciparum is the most dangerous.
Until a few years ago, there was great hope that public health measures might lead to almost total eradication of this most ancient plague.
Unfortunately, this optimism was misplaced and the world situation is rapidly becoming worse. The control of malaria lies mainly in getting rid of the vector which is the anopheles mosquito.
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