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Malaria
is probably one of the oldest diseases known to mankind that
has had profound impact on our history. But for malaria, the
outcomes of many a wars and destinies of many a kings would have
been different. It has been responsible for
the decline of nations and crushing military defeats, often
having caused more casualties than the weapons themselves. For
centuries it prevented any economic development in vast regions
of the earth. It continues to be a huge social, economical and
health problem, particularly in the tropical countries. History
of malaria and its terrible effects is as ancient as the history
of civilization, therefore history of mankind itself.
Malaria was linked with poisonous vapours of swamps or stagnant
water on the ground since time immemorial. This probable relationship was so firmly established that it
gave the two most frequently used names
to the disease mal’aria,
later shortened to one word
malaria, and paludisme. The term malaria (from the Italian mala “bad” and aria
“air”) was used by the Italians to describe the cause of intermittent
fevers associated with exposure to marsh air or miasma. The word was introduced to English by Horace Walpole, who
wrote in 1740 about a “horrid thing called mal’aria, that comes to
Rome every summer and kills one.” The term malaria, without the apostrophe, evolved into the
name of the disease only in
the 20th century. Up to that point the various intermittent fevers had been called jungle fever, marsh fever, paludal fever, or swamp fever.
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History of Malaria
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