I take a lot for granted. For instance, I know that when I pull the chain on my bedside lamp, a light will come on. If a pesky mosquito lands on me when I’m running outside, I slap it away — not giving a thought to what diseases it may harbor. But according to the World Health Organization,  a child in Africa dies from malaria every 30 seconds. Mosquitoes can harbor a nasty parasite that causes malaria, a potentially deadly disease. As the CDC explains, malaria is found primarily in developing nations, and the cost of treating it can cripple these shaky economies.

While malaria and parasites may seem far removed from us (unless we’re returning from a sub-Saharan African trek), the disease greatly affected a Depression-era initiative launched by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. On May 18, 1933, FDR commissioned the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) as part of the New Deal. This controversial project promised to bring electricity and progress to the poverty-stricken Tennessee River Basin, where erosion and floods had ravaged the land. The TVA produces the most electric power in the United States, and it’s been the driving factor behind industrial growth in the Tennessee River Basin.

But before the TVA’s success, there were widespread malaria prevention efforts in the region. The CDC notes that 30 percent of the Tennessee population in this area was afflicted with malaria. Due to intensive studies and vigorous efforts to stamp out the disease, by 1947, malaria no longer proliferated here. It required careful attention to water levels (mosquitoes love bodies of stagnant water) and the application of insecticides to accomplish this feat. In case you’re wondering, between 1945 and 1950, the TVA used DDT as a larvicide. The TVA maintains that it prefers to use “environmental or naturalistic control methods.”

If you like your parasites with a little more yuck and a little less history, you must turn your attention to Animal Planet’s Monsters Inside Me. It’s on Wednesdays at 9 p.m.

Quiz yourself on history and money:
Who Said It: Obama or FDR?
Fact or Fiction: The Great Depression
Recession Quiz