Malaria Trials: Freedom or Exploitation?

This was the deal offered to over 400 prisoners: let us infect you with malaria,

and we’ll take years off your sentence. They all said yes—because freedom inside a cage feels priceless.

So researchers bred infected mosquitoes, clamped the cages to their arms, and let the bugs

feast until 3 a.m.—just to be sure the malaria stuck. One bite wasn’t enough.

If a mosquito didn’t pump enough parasites, they’d dissect its salivary glands to double-check,

then line up the same prisoner for round two. They even dripped experimental drugs

so toxic they turned urine blue and caused red-blood-cell meltdowns—one inmate died from an overdose.

The reward: a year off the sentence and smokes for playing human petri dish. The kicker?