The history of malaria predates humanity, as this ancient disease evolved before humans did. Malaria, a widespread and potentially lethal infectious disease, has afflicted people for much of human history, and has affected settlement patterns. The prevention and treatment of the disease have been investigated in science and medicine for hundreds of years, and, since the discovery of the parasite which causes it, attention has focused on its biology. These studies have continued up to the present day, since no effective Malaria vaccine has yet been developed and many of the older antimalarial drugs are losing effectiveness as the parasite evolves high levels of drug resistance. As malaria remains a major public health problem, causing 250 million cases of fever and approximately one million deaths annually, understanding its history is key.
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“The history of progress is written in the blood of men and women who have dared to espouse an unpopular cause, as, for instance, the black man’s right to his body, or woman’s right to her soul.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)
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