Ronald Ross (1857-1932)
Ross was the epitome of the Victorian bug hunters, born in the Himalayas in the heyday of the British Empire, he returned to his roots as a physician where he pursued Manson and Laveran’s hypothesis that the mosquito acted as a nurse to the malaria parasite.
Unlike Manson, Ross was not a natural microscopist and progress was slow. He paid patients to allow mosquitoes to bite, then dissected mosquitoes after their blood meal. The account of how he stumbled upon what we now know as the sporozoite stage of the Plasmodium life cycle has grown in the telling, but it was enough to earn him a share of the 1902 Nobel Prize for Medicine.
His studies in vector borne diseases took him to many parts of the tropics, including West Africa, the Middle east and Mauritius, resulting in the development of mathematic methods for epidemiological analysis. His later years brought a series of awards and honours, an institute named after him and the recognition of his peers for his continued contributions to understanding malaria.
His passion for hunting down bugs was not restricted to Plasmodium species. While pursuing malaria in Bangalore, his work was interrupted by a cholera epidemic. He entreated public health officials to introduce a sanitation programme, but lacked the charisma, the contacts or clout to put his knowledge into wider practice. Like many gentlemen bug hunters who had been early adopters of Pasteur’s germ theory, he was ahead of his time.
About Tim Inglis
What?! No mention of the Italians?…
Is this the Ross of Ross River Fever?
No, not this one.
The Scots got around the British Empire, probably because the English needed tough adventurers for their expanding colonies. You can track the Ross surname around the world in places where Scotsmen have settled.
Ross River virus is the cause of RR fever. It belongs to the alphavirus group of arboviruses and was first isolated from mosquitoes trapped near Townsville in 1959. The Ross River, Ross Creek and Ross Island are all named after William Ross who opened the first pub in Townsville. Australia proudly recognises her pioneer publicans.
Not to be confused with the town of Ross River in the Northern Territory, named after John Ross who explored a lot of central Australia in the early days of European colonisation.