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Fun Facts on Malaria

We thought you would enjoy these tidbits from the history of malaria.

Archaeological forensic evidence now suggests that malaria played major roles in the fall of many ancient civilizations, including Ancient Greece and Rome.Greece didn't become a major tourist destination until the 1960's, when it cleared out the malaria. The Indian Ocean nation of the Comoros Islands, a major tourist destination for South Africans, is clearing malaria now

Malaria takes its name from the Italian words for 'bad air' because of the swampy air around the places where they had the most malaria. Mussolini cleared the swamps between Rome and the sea, a traditionally inhospitable area for humans because of the malaria. Many mourned the loss of the exquisite cheeses made from the local water buffalo that had been kept to plow the swampy fields.

To cure syphilis in 1900 a common treatment was to infect oneself with malaria, let the fever from malaria kill the syphilis, and then treat malaria with quinine.

The Erie Canal was a major deceitful enticement scandal because the workers enticed to work on the canal were not told that they most surely would get malaria.

Tonic water was developed to deliver preventative doses of quinine to the British population occupying India. Tonic Water is so bitter that in India people started drinking it with Gin to improve the taste. For the America palette quinine is so bitter that tonic water is usually sweetened. Check the bottle for sugar content as you pour yourself your next Gin and Tonic.

The first effort to dig the Panama Canal failed miserably because of malaria. The French hospitals and doctors put small jars filled with water around the legs of all the hospital beds to keep bugs from crawling into the beds. The water served as a breeding ground for mosquitoes, quickly making hospitals the best places to catch, rather than cure malaria. Eventually killing mosquitoes and mass treatments with quinine cut the combination of human reservoir of the parasite and the vector, the mosquitoes until the workers could resume digging.

An anopheline mosquito can lay eggs in a hoofprint of an animal or the water collected in a flower, such as a bromeliad. Anopheline mosquitoes are clean water mosquitoes. As a result, you probably won't find them in latrines, which are dirty water. Yet, any operations researcher will tell you that if you don't knock the mozzies out of the john, too, while you're at it, the locals won't think you've eliminated mosquitoes transmitting malaria.

In late 1995 and early 1996, the Yanomami people of the northern Amazon jungle lost at least a quarter of their population to a malaria outbreak when a flood forced them together on high ground where transmission became rampant. Especially vulnerable in the weakened and stressed state, malaria threatens to push many aboriginal peoples to extinction. Trading the nets treated with the long lasting insecticides into the jungle may help to save such tribes from extinction.

Many island populations in the South Pacific would not use white mosquito nets because they looked like shrouds.

Some studies of promoting insecticide treated nets cost the promoters over $50 per net sold into the community. They could have given 10-20 nets for the price of promotions alone.

Many tropical peoples sleep under nets so that any snakes falling from the rafters in the night fall onto the nets and hence off the beds rather than falling into their bed. Personally, I hate it when that happens.

The first mass use of Insecticide Treated Nets was is communist China. Millions of mosquito nets were issued and treated and malaria rates plummeted. Western researchers were not able to study the efforts in detail, despite the success of the campaign.

Resistant strains of malaria may have originated in the Vietnam War because of the widespread and consistent use of medicines by soldiers to prevent malaria. When the parasite learned resistance to those drugs, it learned how to resist the poisons we humans took to kill it. Thus, multidrug resistant malaria was born.

Artemisinin, the Chinese herbal medicine now a mainstream malaria drug, is often refined as a home remedy by soaking the artemisia plant in gasoline. Researchers want to experiment with wild colors on nets to distinguish between nets that are given away and the nets that are for purchase in the marketplace. The different colored nets would be easier to spot as they 'leak' into the marketplace.

In 1900 Malaria was a major cause of childhood mortality in the US.

The Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812 was delayed because
soldiers on both sides were so sick with malaria.

Mussolini did more than make the trains run on time, he drained the
swamps between Rome and the sea, reducing malaria dramatically.

Greece, Spain and the rest of the Mediterranean coast became much more popular a tourist destination after Malaria was eliminated in the 1960's.

Archaeological evidence confirms that Malaria played a significant role in the downfall of both the Roman and Greek civilizations.

Alexander the Great was long thought to have died from malaria. Reports of crows dying all around Baghdad at the time were seen as ill omens suggest reinterpretion. Is Alexander's death attributable to an outbreak of West Nile Virus?

The Tennessee Valley Authority Project was conceived in large part to control malaria. Malaria was not cleared from the South until the 1950's.

Washington, DC was riddled with malaria. Until well into the 20th
century those who could afford to leave Washington, DC in the summers did so, as much to avoid malaria as the heat.

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In some countries the reason people prefer to sleep under mosquito nets, even if they are sleeping outside is snakes. Snakes climb into the rafters or up into trees. The problem: snakes sometimes fall from rafters or trees. Ok, maybe they jump. Sleeping under a net shunts the snake off to the side of the bed. You might not even wake up when the snake falls. When a snake falls into your bed, it probably does wake you up. It may not happen too often, really. Even if this didn't happen too often, I'd be sleeping under at least one net, wouldn't you?	Fun Facts on Malaria We thought you would enjoy these tidbits from the history of malaria. Archaeological forensic evidence now suggests that malaria played major roles in the fall of many ancient civilizations, including Ancient Greece and Rome.Greece didn't become a major tourist destination until the 1960's, when it cleared out the malaria. The Indian Ocean nation of the Comoros Islands, a major tourist destination for South Africans, is clearing malaria now Malaria takes its name from the Italian words for 'bad air' because of the swampy air around the places where they had the most malaria. Mussolini cleared the swamps between Rome and the sea, a traditionally inhospitable area for humans because of the malaria. Many mourned the loss of the exquisite cheeses made from the local water buffalo that had been kept to plow the swampy fields. To cure syphilis in 1900 a common treatment was to infect oneself with malaria, let the fever from malaria kill the syphilis, and then treat malaria with quinine. The Erie Canal was a major deceitful enticement scandal because the workers enticed to work on the canal were not told that they most surely would get malaria. Tonic water was developed to deliver preventative doses of quinine to the British population occupying India. Tonic Water is so bitter that in India people started drinking it with Gin to improve the taste. For the America palette quinine is so bitter that tonic water is usually sweetened. Check the bottle for sugar content as you pour yourself your next Gin and Tonic. The first effort to dig the Panama Canal failed miserably because of malaria. The French hospitals and doctors put small jars filled with water around the legs of all the hospital beds to keep bugs from crawling into the beds. The water served as a breeding ground for mosquitoes, quickly making hospitals the best places to catch, rather than cure malaria. Eventually killing mosquitoes and mass treatments with quinine cut the combination of human reservoir of the parasite and the vector, the mosquitoes until the workers could resume digging. An anopheline mosquito can lay eggs in a hoofprint of an animal or the water collected in a flower, such as a bromeliad. Anopheline mosquitoes are clean water mosquitoes. As a result, you probably won't find them in latrines, which are dirty water. Yet, any operations researcher will tell you that if you don't knock the mozzies out of the john, too, while you're at it, the locals won't think you've eliminated mosquitoes transmitting malaria. In late 1995 and early 1996, the Yanomami people of the northern Amazon jungle lost at least a quarter of their population to a malaria outbreak when a flood forced them together on high ground where transmission became rampant. Especially vulnerable in the weakened and stressed state, malaria threatens to push many aboriginal peoples to extinction. Trading the nets treated with the long lasting insecticides into the jungle may help to save such tribes from extinction. Many island populations in the South Pacific would not use white mosquito nets because they looked like shrouds. Some studies of promoting insecticide treated nets cost the promoters over $50 per net sold into the community. They could have given 10-20 nets for the price of promotions alone. Many tropical peoples sleep under nets so that any snakes falling from the rafters in the night fall onto the nets and hence off the beds rather than falling into their bed. Personally, I hate it when that happens. The first mass use of Insecticide Treated Nets was is communist China. Millions of mosquito nets were issued and treated and malaria rates plummeted. Western researchers were not able to study the efforts in detail, despite the success of the campaign. Resistant strains of malaria may have originated in the Vietnam War because of the widespread and consistent use of medicines by soldiers to prevent malaria. When the parasite learned resistance to those drugs, it learned how to resist the poisons we humans took to kill it. Thus, multidrug resistant malaria was born. Artemisinin, the Chinese herbal medicine now a mainstream malaria drug, is often refined as a home remedy by soaking the artemisia plant in gasoline. Researchers want to experiment with wild colors on nets to distinguish between nets that are given away and the nets that are for purchase in the marketplace. The different colored nets would be easier to spot as they 'leak' into the marketplace. In 1900 Malaria was a major cause of childhood mortality in the US. The Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812 was delayed because soldiers on both sides were so sick with malaria. Mussolini did more than make the trains run on time, he drained the swamps between Rome and the sea, reducing malaria dramatically. Greece, Spain and the rest of the Mediterranean coast became much more popular a tourist destination after Malaria was eliminated in the 1960's. Archaeological evidence confirms that Malaria played a significant role in the downfall of both the Roman and Greek civilizations. Alexander the Great was long thought to have died from malaria. Reports of crows dying all around Baghdad at the time were seen as ill omens suggest reinterpretion. Is Alexander's death attributable to an outbreak of West Nile Virus? The Tennessee Valley Authority Project was conceived in large part to control malaria. Malaria was not cleared from the South until the 1950's. Washington, DC was riddled with malaria. Until well into the 20th century those who could afford to leave Washington, DC in the summers did so, as much to avoid malaria as the heat.

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