Malaria isn't really a problem in New Zealand, as far as I know - although we do have mosquitoes, horrible things that they are - so I knew very little about the disease when I picked this book up at the library. It's a fascinating and well-researched account of how malaria has affected people over the course of human history, and how humans in turn have tried to affect both it and the mosquitoes that carry it.

I think what most struck me here is the importance of localisation. Not only is the disease itself easily adapted to local conditions, but any attempt to counter it must also take those conditions into account or risk abject failure. That sounds obvious, but it's clear from many of the anti-malarial attempts described in this book that that obvious, for many people, was not obvious at all. Just as compelling was the portrait of a disease that appears to be the ultimate survivor, mutating and adapting in a number of different ways - it begs the question: can malaria ever be eradicated in the same way that smallpox was, for instance? The book seems to suggest that no, it can't, which is a somewhat depressing thought, especially if the changing climate influences the spread of malaria-bearing mosquitoes to different, previously uninfected parts of the world. Ugh, what a prospect.