History

The word malaria originated from the italian word “mala aria” meaning
bad air. Malaria’s first ever case was in 2700BC in china and the victim was
Emperor Huang Ti. Malaria has attacked many known people including George
Clooney, Cheryl Cole, John F Kennedy, Didier Drogba and Alexander the great.
Malaria’s first known victim was Alexander the great.

Here is a timeline of the relationship of malaria with humans.

*18 BC the disease malaria was described by the Romans. Malaria was thought
to come from swamps so the name means ‘bad air’

* 1820 Quinine used to prevent the disease

* 1880 Charles Laveran, a French army doctor observed the malarial parasite
in the blood from a patient that just died, before that he discovered that the
cause of malaria came from the protozoan.

* 1886 Golgi observed asexual reproduction in the protozoan Plasmodium and
identified two species

*1898 Giovanni Grassi named the Anopheles mosquito as the carrier of the
malarial parasite

* 1897 Ronald Ross discovered that Plasmodium was the protozoan that
caused the disease malaria.

* 1898 Ross described complete lifecycle of the malaria parasite

* Early 1900s Chemical structure of quinine was determined

* 1940 Chloroquine the first synthetic anti-malarial drug was used

* 1940s Shown that patients with sickle-cell anaemia are more resistant to
malaria because the parasite cannot live in their sickle shaped red blood cells

* 2013. The vaccine RTSS is under development and close to marketing. It is 60% effective in protecting against future infections.

Malaria has had a relationship with humans since prehistory, and the first recorded case in 2700B.C. was by no means the first. Malaria has evolved to treatment but modern vaccines are stronger the the parasite and a cure that is 100% effective shouldn't be far away.