Malaria history
Malaria, one of the worlds most deadly and well known
diseases. The word malaria means bad air in Italian. The
disease was so named because it was thought to be a result
of rising swamp gases that got into the air which caused
the disease in humans. But in 1880,Charles Laveran
discovered a protozoal parasite in the blood of an ill
patient. There after,in 1898 Ronald Ross found that the bite
of the female Anopheles mosquito transmits the parasites
into the bloodstream. Once in the bloodstream the parasites
make their way to the cells of the liver where they
reproduce asexually. After which,these cells burst and
release the parasite back into the bloodstream where they
reproduce asexually and feed on the hemoglobin in the
cells. The red blood cells burst and release both asexual and
sexual forms of the parasite.
It is estimated by experts that nearly 300 million people
world wide contract the disease each year with an
estimated 2 million deaths. But there are various groups of
humans that have build up a genetic defence against
malaria. Some African and Mediterranean people have
altered hemoglobin genes for which the parasite cannot
thrive as easily as it can in other hosts with normal
hemoglobin. Unfortunately people that inherit altered
genes are more apt to contract sickle-cell disease. Though
many advancements has been made in preventing malaria
in Africa,the fight is far from over.
Prior to the 1630s there were very few known ways to cure
or prevent malaria,until Spanish missionaries uncovered
an extract from the bark of the cinchona tree which is
native to South America. The extract,alkaloid quinine,or
quindine,were the only malarial fighting drugs available
during the first 50 years of the 20th century. Current
treatments would be chloroquine as first choice,or a
combination of pyrimethamine and chloroguanide. The
malaria parasite has discovered a resistance against
choroquine, but when used with another drug called
desipramine, the resistance factor is being well challenged.
There is another promising drug that is being researched
for the treatment of malaria,such as arteeher, from the
chemical ginghaosu which was derived from a herb called
Artemisia. This herb was discovered by a Chinese chemist
and has been used for hundreds of years by the Chinese to
treat malaria and fever.
When it comes to preventing malaria,the best way is to
control the cause and spread of the disease; the mosquito;
which is also linked to the spread of yellow fever. So,first
prevent the breeding of mosquitoes by draining off
standing water, or by removing discorded containers that
can trap rain water, cut out grass and underbrush, kill the
larvae with oil, nicotin and other chemicals. In order to
control the spread of malaria, people that are infected with
the disease should be placed in a screened in environment
to prevent mosquitoes from spreading the disease from the
sick to the healthy. In other words,prevent mosquitoes
from infecting people, prevent people from infecting
mosquitoes.
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