Foreword

Abstract

The present issue of Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz is entirely devoted to malaria studies as part of the celebration of the centenary of the discovery of the exo-erythrocytic cycle of malaria parasites by Henrique BR Aragão (1879-1956). This third issue of volume 102 contains 23 articles that bring original contributions following investigations performed by researchers from several American, European, Asian, and African countries, dealing with quite a few fields in malariology, from genetics of human plasmodia and anopheline vectors to malaria epidemiology, immunology, and therapy. Henrique Aragão has worked at Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, for 53 years, from 1903, when he arrived in Manguinhos as a student to carry out his doctoral thesis, until a week before passing away. In April 1907, just two years after graduating in medicine and working as researcher assistant at Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Aragão described the development of the dove parasite Haemoproteus columbae in the lung capillary endothelium of this vertebrate host bitten by an infected Hippoboscidae fly Pseudolynchia canariensis. This discovery, that came out in his paper titled Über den Enwicklungsgang und die Ubertragung von Haemoproteus columbae (Arch Protistenkd 12: 154-167, 1908), was a precursor of the recognition of the existence of pre-erythrocytic multiplication forms in the plasmodial cycles, confirmed to occur in human malaria only in 1948, some 40 years later. As part of the celebration of the centenary of Aragão's discovery, a scientific meeting, "Henrique Aragão Seminar on Malaria Research: 100 years of the discovery of the exoerythrocytic cycle of malaria", was held in Manguinhos, on April 12 and 13, when Ruth S Nussenzweig, from New York University, was nominated to the 2007 Hernrique Aragão Medal, honoring those who markedly improved the knowledge in malaria and reverencing excellence on malaria research.