For my site visit I decided to go to the CDC museum as it was conveniently located, free to attend, and offered a rather deserve selection of microbes from which to choose. While at the museum I slowly meandered through the three levels of exhibits (spending a tad too much time ogling the electron microscope from the 30’s) and learned about many diseases which the CDC has sought to eliminate or at the very least reduce their rates of propagation and mortality. I was particularly take by three displays: a rather expansive timeline detailing the CDC’s efforts during the AIDS epidemic, beginning with determining what the disease even was and thus what to call it, a smaller display about viewing violence through the lens of epidemiology along with a case study in which the CDC did exactly that, and finally a detailed display about malaria and its ties to the origin of the CDC itself. I was surprised to learn that at a time after World War II, malaria was actually present and problematic in the United States, even being the disease that lead to the creation of the Public Health Service’s “Malaria Control in War Areas” which would go on to become the CDC. Until viewing this display I had been wholly ignorant not only in the role malaria played in the founding of the CDC, but that malaria had ever been an issue in the continental United States at all. This is what made me decide to make my blog about malaria and its causative agent, Plasmodium. As funny as it sounds, I was excited to learn how little I new about something so commonly talked talk about, and that I thought I essentially “had pegged” as what it was and where it was a major issue, as well as learning that it played such and important role in the creation of the Centers for Disease Control, which is a powerful force for good in modern times. The site did not have images of plasmodium itself (I have since done outside research to fix this), but did have several interesting historical images include a map of affected areas, pro-pesticide propaganda posters, and even an antique insecticide sprayer!