UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) Fats & Fakes Towards improved control of malaria Visser, B.J. Publication date 2017 Document Version Other version License Other Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Visser, B. J. (2017). Fats & Fakes: Towards improved control of malaria. General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam (https://dare.uva.nl) Download date:28 Sep 2021 Chapter 2 Discovery of the Malaria Parasites and their Vectors – A Short History Benjamin J. Visser Martin P. Grobusch Discoveries in Modern Science: Exploration, Invention, Technology, 1st ed. 2015, Chapter: Malaria Is Transmitted by Mosquitoes, Publisher: Macmillan Reference USA, Editors: James Trefil, Patricia Daniels, Donna McPhie, Craig Schiffries, pp.640-647 “Land cover map of Africa. This map was produced for the year 2000 using data collected by sensors on satellites.” Adapted from: Soil Atlas of Africa, 2013. European Commission, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg.1 21 20 507377-L-bw-Visser Processed on: 19-1-2017 Chapter 2 Discovery of the Malaria Parasites and their Vectors – A Short History Benjamin J. Visser Martin P. Grobusch Discoveries in Modern Science: Exploration, Invention, Technology, 1st ed. 2015, Chapter: Malaria Is Transmitted by Mosquitoes, Publisher: Macmillan Reference USA, Editors: James Trefil, Patricia Daniels, Donna McPhie, Craig Schiffries, pp.640-647 “Land cover map of Africa. This map was produced for the year 2000 using data collected by sensors on satellites.” Adapted from: Soil Atlas of Africa, 2013. European Commission, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg.1 21 20 507377-L-bw-Visser Processed on: 19-1-2017 Chapter 2 Discovery of the Malaria Parasites and their Vectors Abstract Introduction Malaria is an ancient disease continuing to pose an enormous health, social, and economic Malaria is an ancient disease causing an enormous health, social, and economic burden51, 52. burden. It is caused by infection with protozoan parasites belonging to the genus It has been described for more than four millennia and is understood to have changed human Plasmodium transmitted via the bite of female Anopheles species mosquitoes. Of more than populations and the course of human history53, 54. Malaria continues to sicken hundreds of 100 different species infecting a wide range of animals from rodents and birds to mammals, millions of people, resulting in an estimated number of preventable deaths exceeding one five species of malaria parasites are known to infect humans: Plasmodium falciparum, P. million per year (1.2 million in 2010), most of them children under five years of age in sub- vivax, P. ovale (now being recognized as consisting of two subspecies), P. malariae and P. Saharan Africa3. In many aspects, the multifaceted history of malaria illuminates the knowlesi. P. falciparum is most likely to cause severe disease and, if not promptly treated, evolution of modern science and medicine over the centuries, from myths and supernatural may lead to death. References to the disease occur in the Chinese canon of medicine, clay beliefs to evidence-based scientific insights55. Poverty and inequality, as much as geography tablets from Mesopotamia, Egyptian papyri and Indian medical works. Descriptions of and climate, made malaria only recently a ‘‘tropical’’ disease: even in the early twentieth malaria from classic Greece and the Roman Empire are abundant. It was commonly believed century it afflicted temperate regions of North America stretching northward into Canada, that malaria was caused by marsh water and foul vapors emanating from swamps, hence the western and northern Europe, and Central and East Asia (see Figure 1)56, 57. Elimination of word mal’aria, from the Italian for “bad air”. For thousands of years, no effective treatment the disease was achieved progressively from many of these areas, and following these was available. This changed with the discovery of Artemisia annua (sweet wormwood) in successes, the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Malaria Eradication Program was China and the use of quinine from Peruvian bark as potent and effective drugs against launched in the late 1950s. There were many accomplishments; however, in the heartlands malaria. The current understanding of the malaria parasites and their lifecycle starts in the of malaria (especially sub-Saharan Africa) the disease remains a dangerous and resilient end of the nineteenth century with the discovery of the malaria parasites in the blood of foe58. Climate change is predicted to have unexpected consequences on malaria distribution malaria patients by Alphonse Laveran in 1880. Subsequently, Ronald Ross discovered in and incidence59. Changes in rainfall, and rising as well as fluctuating temperatures, influence 1897 that a bird malaria parasite was transmitted by mosquitoes. In 1898 Giovanni Grassi, the Anopheles mosquito vectors60. In addition, the malaria life cycle can be altered by Camillo Golgi, Ettore Marchiafava, Amico Bignami, Angelo Celli and Giuseppe Bastianelli temperature variations that influence parasite development within the mosquito (the extrinsic confirmed that malaria in humans was also a mosquito-borne disease, in this case Anopheles incubation development)61. Climate change, which may lead to altitudinal and latitudinal species. Grassi and Filetti introduced the names of P. vivax and P. malariae in 1890. The temperature increases, pose a particular risk for high-elevation areas and regions with a causative agent of what was dubbed ‘malignant malaria’ was baptized P. falciparum by temperate climate59, 62. Climate change can result in reduced prevalence in some areas, while William Welch in 1897 and P. ovale by John Stephens in 1922. The discovery of a liver it may increase or be (re-)introduced in others60, 63. stage before malaria enters the bloodstream was made by Henry Shortt and Cyril Garnham in 1948. The existence of dormant stages, in P. vivax and P. ovale was shown in 1982 by Wojciech Krotoski. This chapter describes the key discoveries and provides a short overview of the multifaceted history of malaria. 23 22 507377-L-bw-Visser Processed on: 19-1-2017 Chapter 2 Discovery of the Malaria Parasites and their Vectors Abstract Introduction Malaria is an ancient disease continuing to pose an enormous health, social, and economic Malaria is an ancient disease causing an enormous health, social, and economic burden51, 52. burden. It is caused by infection with protozoan parasites belonging to the genus It has been described for more than four millennia and is understood to have changed human Plasmodium transmitted via the bite of female Anopheles species mosquitoes. Of more than populations and the course of human history53, 54. Malaria continues to sicken hundreds of 100 different species infecting a wide range of animals from rodents and birds to mammals, millions of people, resulting in an estimated number of preventable deaths exceeding one 2 five species of malaria parasites are known to infect humans: Plasmodium falciparum, P. million per year (1.2 million in 2010), most of them children under five years of age in sub- vivax, P. ovale (now being recognized as consisting of two subspecies), P. malariae and P. Saharan Africa3. In many aspects, the multifaceted history of malaria illuminates the knowlesi. P. falciparum is most likely to cause severe disease and, if not promptly treated, evolution of modern science and medicine over the centuries, from myths and supernatural may lead to death. References to the disease occur in the Chinese canon of medicine, clay beliefs to evidence-based scientific insights55. Poverty and inequality, as much as geography tablets from Mesopotamia, Egyptian papyri and Indian medical works. Descriptions of and climate, made malaria only recently a ‘‘tropical’’ disease: even in the early twentieth malaria from classic Greece and the Roman Empire are abundant. It was commonly believed century it afflicted temperate regions of North America stretching northward into Canada, that malaria was caused by marsh water and foul vapors emanating from swamps, hence the western and northern Europe, and Central and East Asia (see Figure 1)56, 57. Elimination of word mal’aria, from the Italian for “bad air”. For thousands of years, no effective treatment the disease was achieved progressively from many of these areas, and following these was available. This changed with the discovery of Artemisia annua (sweet wormwood) in successes, the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Malaria Eradication Program was China and the use of quinine from Peruvian bark as potent and effective drugs against launched in the late 1950s. There were