Malaria

In 2010, malaria caused ~219,000,000 clinical episodes, and killed around

660,000 people

75% of cases occur in the poor

Drug-resistant cases have been observed

Treatment is inexpensive, from a first-world perspective: ~$0.13

2.68/person

Most of the mortality (~91%) occurs in Africa

Women and children are particularly at risk (~2/3 of deaths are of those
under age five)

At any one time, up to 500,000 people are infected globally

3,300,000,000 people live in areas considered malarious

It has been said that:

Malaria has killed one half of the people that have ever lived

Until the end of World War II, it was responsible for 50% of the business
enjoyed by the funeral industry

For every one person who dies of malaria, another four or five succumb to
its indirect flirtations
Cause of Malaria

Historically, at least three theories were used to explain outbreaks of

malaria:

Bad airs this being the most prevalent explanation

Contamination of water by mosquitos

Three devils

Despite its contemporary global distribution, malaria is an old world disease

that appears to have been first recorded, by the Chinese, in 2700BCE

Malaria is a disease of the blood, caused by a protozoan parasite

There are four types of malaria, but Plasmodium falciparum is the most
significant

It likely has its origins in a disease of apes, monkeys, or birds

It may have jumped the species barrier contemporary with the first
agriculture in Africa

Malaria is vectored by the Anopheles mosquito

The mosquito injects saliva with its bite; the parasite spends part of its life-
cycle in the liver, and then infects red blood cells
The disease is characterized by:

Chills
High fever
Headache
In many cases, it causes coma and/or death

Infection causes immunosuppression, and leaves sufferers vulnerable to

other infections

Malarious areas tend to have high rates of stillbirth, infant mortality, child
mortality, maternal mortality, and male infertility

Sickle cell trait is an adaptation to malaria

Malaria in History

Malaria was brought to Greece by armies returning from foreign campaigns,

and with slaves brought back from Africa

The disease caused widespread illness that may have contributed to the
downfall of Greek civilization

Melancholia accompanied the onset and peak of the malaria season

The Roman Empire suffered the ills of malaria for 500 years, with the life-
giving water infrastructure for which Rome is so well known becoming a
major threat to the populous if left unmaintained

Malaria contributed a goddess to the Roman pantheon: Febris

The roman legions declined, as did the population of farmers

A popular remedy was the recitation of the incantation abracadabra

By the middle ages, malaria had spread into more temperate regions of
Europe

A popular remedy at the time was prayer

Foreign popes refused to rule from Rome, as it was considered a death

sentence to move there

Malaria in the New World

Malaria found its way to the Americas onboard slave ships

Its arrival was devastating to aboriginal peoples, wiping out entire

communties

To this day, the distribution of racial groups in the Caribbean reflects this
moment in history: black on the coast, indigenous in the mountains

The resistance of black slaves to malaria was viewed with suspicion by white
Europeans, and also formed the basis of a rationalization of slavery

3-40% of all of the Europeans who arrived in the Caribbean in the 17th and
18th Centuries died of fever

One of the cures for malaria quinine is derived from the bark of a New
World plant: the Cinchona tree (Peruvian Bark)

It has anti-malarial, anti-inflammatory, and analgesic effects

It is used to flavour tonic water

Treatment & Prevention

Malaria Today