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(Ann)
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genusAnopheles. Not until thirty-five years later, in 1935 – 36 , was mal-
aria scientifically confirmed endemic to Yunnan, as well as Guizhou.
Appalled at the casualties that a disease identified by southwestern pro-
vincials aszhangqiwas causing among his troops during anticommunist
operations, Chiang Kai-shek dispatched a team to investigate. The team
determined thatzhangqiwas, in the vast majority of cases, falciparum
malaria, which caused more deaths in Yunnan than all other diseases
combined.^65
Such lethally intimate experiencewith regional ecological conditions
more than 160 years previously had already compelled officers of Qing
banner units operating on the Yunnan-Myanmar border to make more
specific distinctions. Their Manchu reports generally blamedehe suk-
dun,“foul vapors,”literallymala aria, that pervaded the region for
causing a range of illness among the troops. Yet one 1769 report
characterizedehe sukdunas a distinct disease, stating that“although
there has been no outbreak of“foul vapors,”there have been general
outbreaks of dysentery (Ma:hefeliyenere), malaria (Ma:indehen), and
chills and fever (Ma: shahūrun halhūn).” This report must qualify
absolute equation of malaria with miasmatic terms, but also impre-
cisely considers symptoms as a distinct disease. It may likewise obscure
outbreaks of cerebral malaria as“a fever that works within and an
external chill,”often accompanied by“dizziness and raving,”leaving
some“unable to speak at all.”^66
Southwestern Yunnan’s main malarial vector, the mosquitoAnopheles
minimus, plays host to the blood parasitePlasomdium falciparumin the
process of the insect’s reproductive cycle. Female mosquitoes generally
need a blood to initiate their own egg production, and they can transmit
P. falciparumas they feed over the few weeks of their lifespan. Once
injected into a human body,P. falciparuminfects the liver to begin its
own reproductive cycle. The parasites develop, then enter the blood-
stream to multiply and cause symptoms that include chills, fever, and
sweating and lead to other complications.P. falciparum‘s capacity for
infecting thousands of blood cells in only a few days renders it the most
virulent form of the disease, which includes three other strains transmitted
byAnopheles, the speciesP. vivax,P. malariae, andP. ovale. The cycle is
complete whenAn. minimusfeeds on infected humans, who then host
sexually mature parasites that move to breed asexual offspring within the
gut of the mosquito. In untreated humans, cerebral malaria can develop
to afflict the brain, inducing mental problems. It is the most common
lethal form of malarial infection of the central nervous system. Its range of
192 Across Forest, Steppe, and Mountain
