What is miasma? What's the harm to people?

Miasma refers to the poisonous gas that can cause human diseases due to damp and heat stagnation in southern mountain forests, mostly refers to the poisonous gas produced by the decay of animals and plants in tropical virgin forests, which is easy to cause infectious diseases such as malaria.

The cause of malaria is the damp and hot gas in the pond, which is what we usually call "miasma". Not only that, because most places where many infectious diseases occur are dirty and smelly, people think that the cause is dirty gas, also known as miasma.

Regardless of the East and the West, ancient physicians initially believed that infectious diseases were caused by miasma. Galen, a famous doctor in ancient Rome, Fracastro, a famous doctor in Italy in the Middle Ages, and Heller, a famous doctor in Germany in the19th century all thought that miasma was the main cause of infectious diseases.

According to the viewpoint of modern medicine, malaria is a parasitic disease caused by plasmodium parasitic on human body. Clinical manifestations are intermittent chills, fever, anemia and hepatosplenomegaly. In severe cases, shock, multiple organ failure and even death may occur.

Plasmodium falciparum mainly occurs in southwest China, such as Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and Hainan Island. In the past, miasma was actually malignant malaria.

Extended data:

Frequent season

Intermittent fever seems to occur mostly in summer, malaria always seems to occur in ponds with water, and people in areas with frequent serious intestinal diseases seem to like to drink cold water. They look further and try to find a logical connection.

For example, no matter who enters the pond area, it is easy to get malaria. Therefore, people guess that the cause of malaria is the damp and hot gas in the pond, which is also commonly known as "miasma".

Not only that, because most places where many infectious diseases occur are dirty and smelly, people think that the cause is dirty gas, also known as miasma.

And miasma is invisible and intangible, and people can only indirectly explain its existence, but it cannot be directly verified by scientists. That is to say, we can't see the real pathogen clearly, so we can't completely control and prevent it and find targeted treatment drugs.

Baidu encyclopedia-miasma