Specials

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- 1600 BC
- Indian texts describe fever with malaria-like symptoms.
- 95 BC
- Lucretius suggests that a micro-organism might cause 'swamp fever'
- 450 AC
- Oldest known source of malarial DNA.
- c. 1640
- Spanish colonists in South America discover quinine. The natives probably knew about it before then.
- 1716
- Giovanni Maria Lancisi, a Roman doctor, notes that draining swamps curbs malaria. He suggests mosquitoes spread the disease, but few listen.
- 1880
- French army surgeon Charles Louis Alfonse Laveran spots malaria parasite in blood.
- 1897
- British doctor Ronald Ross observes malaria parasite in mosquitoes.
- 1934
- Chloroquine discovered in Germany. Forgotten and rediscovered in 1940s.
- 1939
- DDT developed
- 1939-45
- Second World War: the risk to soldiers prompts probably the most intense malaria research effort ever. Several new drugs discovered as a result.
- 1956
- WHO launches global campaign to eradicate malaria.
- 1960s
- Drug-resistant parasites and DDT-resistant mosquitoes become widespread.
- 1967
- WHO abandons malaria eradication in favour of control.
- 1979
- Chinese researchers describe artemisinins, a new class of malaria drug derrived from the sweet wormwood plant.
- 1983
- First Plasmodium gene cloned. Mutation leading to drug resistance found.
- 1999
- PATH malaria vaccine initiative founded on a $50 million grant from the Gates Foundation.
- 2002
- Genomes of Plasmodium and Anopheles sequenced.
- 2003
- 2,000 children in Africa are given an experimental vaccine, RTS,S, to see how it fares in protecting against malaria.
- 2004
- The results of the vaccine trial come in: it shows significant protection.
- 2006
- Artemisinin is synthesized in the lab for the first time, raising the prospect of cheaper, more adaptable drugs.
- 2006
- The World Health Organisation launches an International Medical Products Anti-Counterfeiting Taskforce (IMPACT), in large part to beat back the tide of fake malarial drugs in Asia.
- 2006
- The WHO turns back to DDT to help fight malaria.
- 2007
- The Bill & Melinda Gates foundation calls to eradicate malaria.
- 2008
- There is nearly $1 billion available to fight malaria this year.