page_title: History of malaria
section_title: Origin and prehistoric period
hierarchical_section_title: History of malaria / Origin and prehistoric period
caption_attribution_description: English: Baltic Amber necklace with insects inclusions
context_page_description: 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. Its prevention and treatment have been targeted in science and medicine for hundreds of years. Since the discovery of the Plasmodium parasites which cause it, research attention has focused on their biology, as well as that of the mosquitoes which transmit the parasites.
  References to its unique, periodic fevers are found throughout recorded history beginning in the first millennium BC in Greece and China.
  For thousands of years, traditional herbal remedies have been used to treat malaria. The first effective treatment for malaria came from the bark of the cinchona tree, which contains quinine. After the link to mosquitos and their parasites was identified in the early twentieth century, mosquito control measures such as widespread use of the insecticide DDT, swamp drainage, covering or oiling the surface of open water sources, indoor residual spraying and use of insecticide treated nets was initiated.
context_section_description: 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. Humans may have originally caught Plasmodium falciparum from gorillas. P. vivax, another malarial Plasmodium species among the six that infect humans, also likely originated in African gorillas and chimpanzees. Another malarial species recently discovered to be transmissible to humans, P. knowlesi, originated in Asian macaque monkeys. While P. malariae is highly host specific to humans, there is some evidence that low level non-symptomatic infection persists among wild chimpanzees.
  About 10,000 years ago, malaria started having a major impact on human survival, coinciding with the start of agriculture in the Neolithic revolution. Consequences included natural selection for sickle-cell disease, thalassaemias, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency, Southeast Asian ovalocytosis, elliptocytosis and loss of the Gerbich antigen (glycophorin C) and the Duffy antigen on the erythrocytes, because such blood disorders confer a selective advantage against malaria infection (balancing selection). The three major types of inherited genetic resistance (sickle-cell disease, thalassaemias, and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency) were present in the Mediterranean world by the time of the Roman Empire, about 2000 years ago.
  Molecular methods have confirmed the high prevalence of P. falciparum malaria in ancient Egypt. The Ancient Greek historian Herodotus wrote that the builders of the Egyptian pyramids (circa 2700–1700 BCE) were given large amounts of garlic, probably to protect them against malaria. The Pharaoh Sneferu, the founder of the Fourth dynasty of Egypt, who reigned from around 2613–2589 BCE, used bed-nets as protection against mosquitoes. Cleopatra VII, the last Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt, similarly slept under a mosquito net. However, whether the mosquito nets were used for the purpose of malaria prevention, or for more mundane purpose of avoiding the discomfort of mosquito bites, is unknown. The presence of malaria in Egypt from circa 800 BCE onwards has been confirmed using DNA-based methods.
caption: The mosquito and the fly in this Baltic amber necklace are between 40 and 60 million years old.
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