Lewis Smith Lake (or Smith Lake) is located in North-Central Alabama about 20 miles northwest of Birmingham in state of Alabama (U.S.) counties of Cullman, Walker and Winston. The 300-foot high dam, completed in 1961 by Alabama Power Company, impounds the Sipsey Fork of the Black Warrior River to form the lake.
Because the malaria species Plasmodium vivax normally uses DARC to enter red blood cells, people who carry this mutation are resistant to one strain of malaria. This particular strain of malaria is not a major killer in Africa today, but was likely more threatening in the past. Biologists reason that the DARC mutant arose in Africa through random mutation and began to spread through the process of natural selection.
How malaria is spread. The parasite is transmitted to humans by the bite of infected female Anopheles species mosquitoes. The parasites multiply in the liver and the bloodstream of the infected person.The parasite may be taken up by another mosquito when it bites an infected person.alaria is caused by a parasite called Plasmodium. There are 5 species of Plasmodium which infect humans: 1  Plasmodium vivax. 2  Plasmodium falciparum. 3  Plasmodium malariae. 4  Plasmodium ovale. 5  Plasmodium knowlesi which is less common.