Poetic sting: When Ronald Ross penned a poem after discovering malaria-mosquito link

In 1897, soon after discovering that malaria parasite is carried by mosquito, British doctor Sir Ronald Ross had in a poem expressed optimism about the fight against this health menace, not knowing then that it would still be one of the dreaded diseases 120 years later.

Ross, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1902 for his work on malaria transmission, besides being a scientist, wore several other hats, one of them being of a poet.

Born in Almora in India in 1857, he had confirmed the presence of the malarial parasite inside the gut of mosquito, which he originally identified as "dappled-wings" (which turned out to be species of the genus Anopheles).

August 20 is observed as World Mosquito Day to commemorate his groundbreaking discovery and also to raise awareness about malaria and the ways to prevent its spread.

On August 21, 1897, shortly after discovering malaria parasites in mosquitoes, Ross had penned an optimistic poem, according to a paper -- Developmental genomics of the most dangerous animal -- by Matthew P Scott.

The paper was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) in 2007.

A few lines of the poem read -- "With tears and toiling breath, I find thy cunning seeds, O million-murdering Death. I know this little thing, A myriad men will save. O Death, where is thy sting? Thy victory, O Grave!"