Malaria in history

Malaria is a mosquito-borne life-threatening infectious disease of humans, caused by parasites (genus: Plasmodium) that are transmitted to people through the bites of infected mosquitoes (genus: Anopheles).

The history of malaria stretches from its prehistoric origin as a zoonotic disease in the primates of Africa through to the 21st century. A widespread and potentially lethal human infectious disease, at its peak malaria infested every continent, except Antarctica.

The first evidence of malaria parasites was found in mosquitoes preserved in amber from the Palaeogene period that are approximately 30 million years old. Human malaria likely originated in Africa and coevolved with its hosts, mosquitoes and non-human primates. Malaria protozoa are diversified into primate, rodent, bird, and reptile host lineages.

In 2700 BC:, The Nei Ching(Chinese Canon of Medicine) discussed malaria symptoms and the relationship between fevers and enlarged spleens. The name is derived from the Italian, “mal aria,” or bad air.

In 1550 BC, The Ebers Papyrus mentions fevers, rigors, splenomegaly, and oil from Balantines tree as mosquito repellent.

For thousands of years, traditional herbal remedies have been used to treat malaria. The first effective treatment for malaria came from the bark of cinchona tree, which contains quinine. After the link to mosquitos and their parasites were identified in the early twentieth century, mosquito control measures such as widespread use of DDT, swamp drainage, covering or oiling the surface of open water sources, indoor residual spraying and use of insecticide treated nets was initiated.

In the 1890's British scientist Patrick Manson theorized that mosquitoes may be involved in malaria transmission. In 1897, Ronald Ross, a British officer in the Indian Medical Service, demonstrated that malaria parasites could be transmitted from infected patients to mosquitoes. He also showed that mosquitoes could transmit the parasites from bird to bird, demonstrating the existence of a sporogonic cycle (development within the mosquito).

Malaria in history

Campylobacter in history

Campylobacter species have been causing illness for several centuries although they were only recognised as a human pathogens in the 1970’s.

Campylobacter species have long been associated with the cause of veterinary diseases such as diarrhoea and septic abortions in cattle and sheep. It was first identified in the fecal tissue of aborted sheep in 1913, but was not isolated from stool samples of patients with diarrhoea until 1972.

The first observation of Campylobacter organism may have been as early as 1886 by Theodor Escherich, who described spiral organisms in the large intestine of children who had died of diarrhoea disease, and he called it ‘cholera infantum’.

Later Smith and Taylor described the vibrionic abortion in cattle and named the agent Vibrionic fetus. The association of V. fetes with enteric disease was first reported by Elizabeth King in 1957, and she preferred to name as ‘related vibrios’. In 1959, Florent showed that a form of the infection known bovine infections infertility was caused by V. fetes transmitted from carrier bulls to cows during coitus.

The genus name Campylobacter a Greek word for ‘curved rod’ was eventually proposed by Sebald and Veron (1963) to include microaerophilic bacteria that were different form Vibrio cholera and other species of vision in a number of respects.

In 1970s Campylobacter was successfully isolated from the stools of humans with accurate enter colitis. The isolation of Campylobacter from feces was accomplished in 1968 and published in 1972.

Campylobacter in history

Discovery of leprosy

Leprosy a disease cited in the Old Testament, was an epidemic disease that spread over Europe and reached its speak at the end of the thirteenth century, eliminated by bubonic plaques that killed most of the susceptible debilitated lepers along with half of the overall population.

 Examination of mummies in Egypt indicates that the disease existed in that country as early as the 2nd century BC. It is believed that in the 1st century BC, following fighting in Egypt, Roman soldiers of the army of Pompey, carried the disease with them when they travelled from Egypt to Italy.

Historical accounts of ‘affliction’ point to leprosy; through the ages the disease conjured up dreadful images of rejection and exclusion from society, disfiguring skin lesions, and fingers and toes falling off. People suffering from the disease were required to carry and ring bells and to shout ‘unclean’ as the approached others.

A prominent dermatologist in Norway, Daniel Cornelius Danielsen, wrote the first extensive description of leprosy in 1847.

It was this description that Norwegian physician Gerhard Henrik Armauer Hansen used 20 years later as the basis for his studies of leprosy.

In 1873, Hansen succeeded in isolating and identifying Mycobacterium leprae under the microscope. Hansen garnered the recognition he so deserved in 1909, when he was horned at the Second International Leprosy Congress in Bergen, Norway.

On the basis of observations made in the 19th century by Virchow Binford, in 1956, postulate that the leprosy bacillus grew best in the cooler parts of the body and that inoculation of ears, footpads and testes of animals might be fruitful.

Mycobacterium leprae could not be cultivated in vitro or transmitted to animals until 1960 when Shepard reported the establishment of a local disease in the mouse footpad.
Discovery of leprosy