Skip to main content

Currently Skimming:

Part 2: Malaria Basics5 A Brief History of Malaria
Pages 123-135

The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.


From page 123...
... PART 2 Malaria Basics
From page 125...
... Ancient writings and artifacts testify to malaria's long reign. Clay tablets with cuneiform script from Mesopotamia mention deadly periodic fevers suggestive of malaria.
From page 126...
... . Falciparum malaria was subsequently imported to the New World by African slaves initially protected by age-old genetic defenses (sickle cell anemia, and G6PD deficiency)
From page 127...
... By the 18th century, the dark specter of disease earned West and central Africa the famous epitaph, "the White Man's Grave." Even stronger testimony to malaria's ancient hold on Africa is the selective survival of hemoglobin S -- the cause of the inherited hemoglobin disorder sickle cell anemia. Since individuals who inherit two copies of the hemoglobin S gene (one from each parent)
From page 128...
... incapable of hosting malaria, on that date he discovered a clear, circular body containing malarial pigment in a dapple-winged Anopheles mosquito that had previously fed on an infected patient. The next day the doctor-cum-poet/composer/mathematician, who struggled to pass his own medical exams, dissected another Anopheles mosquito that had siphoned blood from the same patient on the same day.
From page 129...
... Discovering the Parasite in Human Tissue The third piece of the human malaria puzzle -- where sporozoites inoculated by mosquitoes undergo early development in the human host -- was solved in 1948. Although previous researchers had found that bird malaria initially reproduced in tissues of the lymph system and the bone marrow, the sanctuary for primate and human malaria outside of red blood cells remained a mystery.
From page 130...
... Quinine remains an important and effective malaria treatment nearly worldwide to the present day, despite sporadic observations of quinine resistance. The earliest anecdotal reports of resistance date to 1844 and 1910 (Talisuna et al., 2004)
From page 131...
... Determined never to lack for malaria drugs again, the German government commissioned a search for a quinine substitute following Armistice. The center of operations was I.G.
From page 132...
... . However, as both monotherapies came into common use, it became apparent that malaria parasites could quickly alter the target enzyme of the two drugs, leading to resistance.
From page 133...
... within a few short years Chinese scientists had studied its antimalarial activity from test tube to patient, identified its active structure, then synthesized more active derivatives; and 3) the entire antimalarial drug discovery program resulted from an initial appeal for help from Ho Chi Minh to Zhou En Lai during the Vietnam War.
From page 134...
... 1945. Studies on synthetic antimalarial drugs: Some biguanide derivatives as new types of antimalarial substances with both therapeutic and causal prophylactic activity.
From page 135...
... Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 88(1)


This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More information on Chapter Skim is available.