America 's Eradication Of Malaria

In 1820, the scientists Pelletier and Caventou were able to isolate the quinine alkaloid from the bark of the tree to be sold as the antimalarial drug. Not until 1944, during World War II, was the alkaloid synthesized by scientists for its medicinal reproduction. This was due to the fact that at the time the top producer of quinine, the dutch owned Indonesian island of Java, was occupied by the Japanese in 1942. This cut off allied forces from the drug supply, forcing them to find alternatives to mass produce the antimalarial drugs.

Malaria has been in existence for thousands of years. Many historical records show that it has affected human civilization greatly by plaguing and causing mass death. The earliest record can be traced back to 2700 BC in China (Cox, 2002). It has been long associated with swamps and insects for hundreds of years but often believed to be the air from swamps causing the plague. The term malaria rooted from two Italian words ‘mala’ and ‘aria’ which literally means bad air. Humanity did not know the true nature of the long thought disease until 1894 when a Scottish physician, Sir Ronald Ross, discovered that it was actually the parasite in mosquito that is causing the malaria.

development was the method of getting quinine from cinchona tree bark to treat the disease

Soldiers also faced another dangerous threat in the south Pacific during World War 2 then just the japanese. This threat was Malaria. Out of the 75,000 American and Filipino soldiers trying to stop the japanese advance in 1942 24,000 of them were suffering from Malaria (Paltzer 2016). The preferred treatment for malaria used by the Army was Quinine. Quinine was a medicine that helped prevent Malaria. However the world supply for Quinine was largely under control

Brian, G, Y., Greenwood, D, A., Fidock, Dennis, E, K., Stefan, H, I. Kappe, P., Alonso, L., Frank, H and Collins, P (2008) “Malaria progress and prospects for eradication.” Journal Clinical Investiment. 118: 1266-1276.

- Quinine, which helps cure malaria, is obtained from the bark of the cinchona tree found in South America.

Aim - To explore the impacts Malaria has on citizens of developing countries which are effect by the disease.

The symbol is a quinine tree. Quinine is an alkaloid found in the bark of the cinchona tree. Quinine has been used to treat malaria,a recurring disease marked by severe chills and fever since the early 1600s. It was the best chemotherapeutic agent available to combat the disease until the 1920s. Malaria treatment by quinine marked the first successful use of a chemical compound to treat an infectious disease. The quinine tree, is the national tree of

Alcohol helps get over a malaria infection. A drink called tonic (in gin and tonic) has been used to treat malarial infection. The tonic contains quinine, which is alkaloid that has an anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties. There have been many more effective solutions have been developed but quinine can still help in a pinch before proper medication.

“Large scale use of quinine as a treatment for malaria...played a significant role in the colonization of Africa by Europeans. Quinine had been said to be the prime reason Africa ceased to be known as ‘the white man’s grave’.” (Connor 95-6) Malaria, native to Africa, is a lethal disease, especially for those who have never been exposed to it (i.e. white men). Vaccinations were a relatively new thing that didn’t become widely used until the Industrial Revolution. Once Europeans got a hold of quinine (made available by mass manufacturing), they would become more able to explore and living on the African continent without fear of dying. Advancements in ship building like steam engines and iron hulls made steamboats the most popular choices for long voyages across the sea (Curtin, Cross-Cultural Trade In World History). Inventions like the steam engine, a product of the Industrial Revolution, made sea travel faster, safer, and cheaper, which would make it easier to get to Africa in the first

There have been many attempts at preventing malaria, none of which have been very successful. These have usually involved protecting human beings from mosquitoes, the dreaded carriers

The Cinchona succiruba also contains a total of approximately 4-14 % of quinine. Quinine was officially initially extracted and isolated Pelletier and Caventou who were French pharmacists. The isolation of quinine is accomplished when the cinchona bark is desiccated, pulverized and permeated followed by Soxhlet extraction. Quinine is a methanol quinolone and it is used against blood schizonts against all species of plasmodium except exo-erythrocytes or gametocytes of the P.falciparum species. The action of quinine is brought about by the inhibition of haem polymerase which is an enzyme needed by the parasites to convert the toxic alpha hematin into the tolerable form, beta hematin; however due to the inhibition of this enzyme by quinine the toxic form will build up and eventually lead to the death of the

For hundreds of years quinine was used in the prevention and treatment of malaria. Quinine is found in the root, bark and branches of trees native to the Andes Mountains in South America. A German researcher invented a synthetic drug, this drug was sold and distributed under the name of Atabrine. Atabrine was bitter, appeared to impart its own sickly hue to the skin, some of the side effects were headaches, nausea, vomiting and in some cases it produce temporary psychosis.

Malaria is a disease that has wrought history since the dawn of time itself. It has conquered some of the mightiest warlords in history including Tutankhamen, Alexander the Great, Attila the Hun and Genghis Khan. The earliest records of malaria symptoms date back to 2700 BCE, first described in the Nei Ching, an ancient Chinese medical script. The Chinese described the prominent symptoms of malaria, discussing the connection between recurring fevers and enlarged spleens. In 1550 BCE the Ebers Papyrus, an ancient Egyptian medical script, mentioned patients suffering from fevers, shivering, vomiting, convulsions and also enlarged spleens. In 600 BCE records of malaria-like fevers rampant in Mesopotamia were found documented on cuneiform tablets. By 400 BCE the symptoms of malaria became widely recognizable in Ancient Greece, where malaria was held responsible for huge population declines in large cities and states. Hippocrates, traditionally regarded as the father of modern medicine, documented the main symptoms of malaria and made extensive notes in the literature of the time. He was also the first to recognise the relationship between occurrences of fevers and close proximity to stagnant waters. The Romans also discovered this connection between fevers and swampy marshes and notably pioneered the first preventative efforts against malaria by draining these swamps. Thus from the medieval Italian language the term ‘malaria’ was coined: mala aria –

The most commonly used medication which treats malaria is atovaquone-proguanil, riamet. There are also other medication chloroquine, atovaquone-proguanil, artemether-lumefantrine, mefloquine, quinine, quinidine doxycycline, clindamycin, artesunate (not licensed in the United States, but available through the CDC malaria)(CDC, 2017). These medications are effective because they are active against the parasite forms in the blood. Atovaquone-proguanil fights the parasite by interfering with the growth of the parasites which are present in the red blood cells. Riamet is made of two ingredients known as artemether and lumefantrine. Artemether and lumefantrine both work to interfere with ability in which malaria parasites can convert haem into