Deadly malaria jumped to humans from wild chimps

An international research team led by evolutionary geneticist Stephen M. Rich of the University of Massachusetts Amherst has discovered that the parasite Plasmodium falciparum, which causes the deadliest form of malaria, jumped from wild chimpanzees to humans via bites by mosquitoes (the vector) in equatorial Africa perhaps as recently as 10,000 years ago. It's an unsuspected origin much more recent than previously thought possible...

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