"Her business is robbery and coldblooded murder ... they call
her Annie Awful ... She's a thief and a killer. She stops at
nothing." Those lines sound like they're from an old detective
movie, but they're actually from a 1943 public health cartoon
aimed at preventing malaria. That dangerous dame, Annie Awful,
is Anopheles — the family of mosquitoes that transmits the
malaria parasite. The cartoon's creator was the predecessor of
the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Today the
CDC is the world's top authority on an array of germs and
viruses. But its origins are deeply rooted in malaria — and war.
The CDC was founded during World War II as the Office of Malaria
Control in War Areas. The agency was charged with eradicating
malaria in the South, especially around military bases. It ran
mosquito abatement programs and publicity campaigns denouncing
the insects, such as the animated film above. At the same time,
the U.S. Army was working hard to eliminate the parasite on
military bases and among the