Conditions
Malaria
Parasitic Disease
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A mosquito-borne infectious disease caused by Plasmodium parasites transmitted through the bite of infected Anopheles mosquitoes, producing cyclical fevers and chills and, in severe cases, organ failure and death. Ancient physicians associated the disease with swampy air, giving it its name from the Italian mal aria, bad air, before the parasite and its mosquito vector were identified in the late nineteenth century. It remains, per the World Health Organization, one of the world's leading causes of death among young children in parts of Sub-Saharan Africa.
Facts
Condition Class Causative AgentPlasmodium parasites (chiefly Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax), transmitted by Anopheles mosquitoes 1 First DescribedMarks Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran's identification of the Plasmodium parasite in a patient's blood, not the disease's first recognition, which is ancient. First Described (Era)Intermittent fevers consistent with malaria are described in Chinese medical texts dating to around 2700 BCE and in the writings of Hippocrates, circa 400 BCE. 2 PrevalenceAn estimated 249 million malaria cases and 608,000 malaria deaths occurred worldwide in 2022, according to World Health Organization data. 3 Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
Tu Youyou was inspired by a traditional Chinese medicine recipe attributed to Ge Hong, circa 340 CE, in isolating artemisinin as an antimalarial.
Treated By
Bloodletting, Treatments Why this is corrected. Under humoral theory, physicians bled patients against intermittent and quartan fevers, including what would now be recognized as malaria. The practice had no effect on the parasite and often worsened outcomes through blood loss; quinine, derived from cinchona bark, became the first genuinely effective treatment from the seventeenth century onward, though this atlas does not yet carry a dedicated quinine or antimalarial-therapy treatment entity (see the gap record).
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