It’s officially summer (and finally beginning to actually feel like it here in New York), and that means that it’s time to break out the mosquito repellent. And beyond the obvious unpleasantness of itchy bites, squashed bug corpses and that infuriating buzzing sound, there’s always malaria to worry about.

And you can thank Christopher Columbus (seen in Smurf form at right) for that one, because he likely brought the disease from the old world to the new on one of his expeditions. Fear not, though, because as poetic justice would have it, he ended up suffering from a fairly serious bout of malaria in 1503. And he’s not the only celeb or historical figure to get stung by the malaria bug. Asylum’s got a listicle of 11 Famous People Who Contracted Malaria, which makes us think maybe it’s worth it if it’ll increase our odds of becoming famous.