| Date | 1878 |
| Author | Manson |
| Contribution | Reported first insect vector of a human disease. |
| Reference | Grove |
| Notes | He published evidence linking elephantiasis and Filaria, now Wuchereria], and implicating the mosquito as an essential element in the life cycle; work done in 1876 - 1877. (Fedchenko had previously shown transmission of a pathogen by a crustacean.) Manson's work was prompted by Lewis's discovery of microfilariae (larvae) in human blood. Manson did not discover that the biting process was involved in transmission from mosquito to human. In the title of his 1878 paper, he refers to the mosquito as a "nurse" for the parasite. This may constitute the earliest direct (as distinct from epidemiological) evidence for disease transmission by an arthropod vector. See also 'Patrick Manson' by Patrick Manson-Bahr, Nelson and Sons, 1962. |
| Category | Causation |
| Pathogen Class | Helminths |
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