Ronald Ross 1857-1932. Photo courtesy of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. Portraits of other scientists who have been involved in elucidating the life cycle of malaria parasites can be found elsewhere [9, 40]. Over the past 2 decades, expanded access to WHO-recommended malaria prevention tools and strategies – including effective vector control and the use of preventive antimalarial drugs – has had a major impact on reducing the global burden of malaria. Dutch physician Pieter Pel first proposed a tissue stage of the malaria parasite in 1886 and announced its discovery more than 50 years ago. This proposal was repeated in 1893, when Golgi suggested that parasites might have an undiscovered tissue phase (this time in endothelial cells). [73] Goggi`s latent phase theory was supported by Pel in 1896. [74] Historically, there are several notable features in the history of Qing-hao`s “rediscovery” as a potent antimalarial: 1) the structure of the drug was unlike any other biological compound known at the time; 2) within a few years, Chinese scientists studied its antimalarial activity from the test tube to the patient, identified its active structure, and then synthesized more active derivatives; and 3) the entire antimalarial drug discovery program resulted from an initial call for help from Ho Chi Minh to Zhou En Lai during the Vietnam War. In 1834, a German doctor, Carl Warburg, invented an antipyretic in British Guiana: the “Warburg tincture”. This secret and exclusive remedy contained quinine and other herbs. In the 1840s and 1850s, trials were held in Europe. It was officially adopted by the Austrian Empire in 1847. It has been considered by many respected health professionals to be a more effective antimalarial than quinine.
It was also more economical. The British government supplied Warburg dye to troops in India and other colonies. [58] Malaria surveillance is the ongoing and systematic collection, analysis, and interpretation of malaria-related data and the use of these data in the planning, implementation, and evaluation of public health practices. Improved surveillance of malaria cases and deaths helps ministries of health identify the most affected areas or populations and allows countries to monitor disease patterns. Strong malaria surveillance systems also help countries design effective health interventions and evaluate the impact of their malaria control programmes. Since October 2021, WHO has also recommended the widespread use of RTS,S/AS01 malaria vaccine in children living in areas with moderate to high transmission of P. falciparum malaria. The vaccine has been shown to significantly reduce malaria and fatal severe malaria in young children. Schlagenhauf P: Malaria von der Vorgeschichte bis zur Gegenwart. 2004, 18: 189-205. 10.1016/J.IDC.2004.01.002. A dispute broke out between the British and Italian schools of malariology over priority, but Ross was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1902 for “his work on malaria, with which he showed how it penetrated the organism and thus laid the foundation for successful research into this disease and the methods of combating it.” [84] In 1894, Manson, who had spent much of his working life in Taiwan and was then 50 years old and working in a London-based medical practice, turned his attention to the possibility of malaria transmission by mosquitoes, but because he was unable to travel to vicious countries himself, He needed someone to conduct the research and experiments needed for him.
His future colleague Ronald Ross was an unlikely choice (Figure 2). In the nineteenth century, the first drugs to treat malaria were developed and parasites were first identified as the source. Guided by this strategy, the Global Malaria Programme coordinates WHO`s global efforts to control and eliminate malaria by: The discovery of the role of mosquitoes in malaria transmission has provided malariologists with a new weapon against this ancient disease. In a classic experiment, Grassi sent 112 volunteers to the Capaccio Plain, a malignant area in Italy, protected them from mosquito bites between dusk and dawn, and found that only five succumbed to the disease, compared to 415 unprotected volunteers, all of whom contracted malaria [25]. Thus, the possibility of controlling the disease by reducing contact with infected mosquitoes has been demonstrated. In the following decades, methods of preventing mosquito bites by preventing, protecting and repelling domestic mosquitoes and mosquito control measures such as the use of larvivor oils and fish and drainage of mosquito habitats had become commonplace [9]. In 1885, Ettore Marchiafava, Angelo Celli and Camillo Golgi studied reproductive cycles in human blood (Golgi cycles). Golgi observed that at regular intervals, all parasites in the blood divide almost simultaneously, and this division coincides with fever attacks. In 1886, Golgi described the morphological differences that are still used today to distinguish the two species of malaria parasites Plasmodium vivax and Plasmodium malariae.
Shortly thereafter, Sakharov in 1889 and Marchiafava & Celli in 1890 independently identified Plasmodium falciparum as a separate species from P. vivax and P. malariae. In 1890, Grassi and Feletti reviewed the available information and named P. malariae and P. vivax (although in the genus Haemamoeba). By 1890, the Laveran germ was generally accepted, but most of its original ideas were abandoned in favor of the taxonomic work and clinical pathology of the Italian school.[70] Marchiafava and Celli named the new microorganism Plasmodium. [71] H. vivax was soon renamed Plasmodium vivax.
In 1892, Marchiafava and Bignami proved that the different forms seen by Laveran came from a single species. This species was eventually named P. falciparum. Laveran was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1907 “in recognition of his work on the role of protozoa in the development of disease.” [72] The WHO Global Technical Strategy for Malaria Control 2016–2030, updated in 2021, provides a technical framework for all malaria-endemic countries. It is designed to lead and support regional and national programmes to control malaria and eliminate. An even stronger testament to malaria`s ancient influence on Africa is the selective survival of hemoglobin S – the cause of hereditary sickle cell anemia. Since people who inherit two copies of the hemoglobin S gene (one from each parent) are unlikely to survive and reproduce, the disease should be extremely rare. In individuals who have inherited only one sickle cell gene (these individuals are “carriers” of sickle cell disease – they have few or no complications from sickle cell disease), needle-shaped hemoglobin S clusters in red blood cells provide strong protection against malaria (Bayoumi, 1987). Thus, in malignant regions, the sickle cell gene is maintained by one group of individuals who reap the benefits, while another group pays the price.
