Malaria- Austen Werab

I. Introduction
Malaria is a disease that has been around since the beginning of time. Scientists know this because they have found fossils of mosquitoes from about 30 million years ago that contained a malaria virus proving that malaria was around during the beginning of history. The first recorded treatment was in the 1600's when Peruvian Indians used the bark from the Cinchona tree to treat this deadly disease and by 1649, the bark was available in England. Not until 1889 did the cause for malaria become known to Alphonse Laveran.

II and III. Discovery and Biography of Investigators
Alphonse Laveran
In 1879, Alphonse Laveran went to study at a military hospital in Algeria and focused his study only on the pigment in the patients' blood who were suffering from malaria (called melanins). When he discovered these melanins, he started thinking of ways to solve this problem, such as ways like: the examination method, using fresh blood with no chemical substances or any other staining process. In 1882, he then based his studies on the marsh fever, and when he tested many people that had marsh fever, he found that there were many similarities in the bodies of melanins between marsh fever and malaria. This busted his hope to find the agent that caused this disease called malaria. In 1884, he published a book named Traité des fiévres palustres, which expressed all of his hard work and discoveries that helped with the diagnosis of malaria. Later in his studies of the parasites that were within the people's bodies, he questioned himself whether the parasites would be outside of the patients' bodies. So he tested the waters, air and soil in the marshes hoping to find the parasite because the patients with malaria and marsh fever were very similar parasite wise. Unfortunately, his test didn't come up with anything, but these sad results did influence him to express how close he had got to finding the agent of malaria in his book mentioned earlier. After all of this work, as stated in his book, Laveran concluded that the parasite didn't come from the air or water, but the insects living around the area that had bitten malaria infested patients, mosquitoes.Even though he came up with these infertile results, we should still recognize his hard work and commitment towards this parasitic disease. (Lambert, 2003)

IV. Impact on the world

Malaria causes over 500,000,000 people to become sick and causes around 1,000,000 deaths a year. Malaria is one of the leading causes of death, right next to tuberculosis. About 75% of these deaths happen around semi-tropical areas due to the rapid reproduction of mosquitoes in this area. An example of a seem-tropical place that is effected is Africa, where the disease mostly effects pregnant women and younger children (usually under the age of five). Africa is not the only place that is effected, many places like the Middle East, Asia, Latin America and parts of Europe suffer from this airborne disease. Not only does malaria effect the world physically, it harms the world economically, especially in places with a higher malaria rate. For example, Africa has spent around 12,000,000,000 dollars taking care of people with malaria and helping to prevent malaria. Other countries do not have to spend this much but a good amount of money to prevent and treat malaria. (Shane,2002)

V. Journal article review

I received this article from questia which was suggested to me by Mrs. Hammond. My journal article is called Ethiopian Mothers Treat Malaria Effectively at Home and it is about how ethiopian mothers or any mothers in rural areas try to treat their children's case of malaria at home or try to take them to a local hospital or treatment center, but are most of the time shunned and ignored because there is so many other patients. The video I found on Youtube which is posted below shows how the mothers treat their children and of they are taught properly how to treat malaria and nutrition issues, then they can treat their children successfully. If people would teach the mothers of one town at a time, then the rate of malaria within younger children and women would definitely drop.(Ethiopia mothers treat malaria effectively in homes, 2000)

VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5Vr8ieQ7fc

VI. References
1) Article:
Ethiopian Mothers Treat Malaria Effectively at Home. (2000). Journal of Environmental Health, 63(5), 45. Retrieved October 14, 2010, from Questia database: http://www.questiaschool.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5002373805
2) Impact on world:
Shane, Barbara (2002) Malaria basics: Global impact and actions: Population Reference Bureau, Inc.
3) Lambert, Paul (2003) Malaria: Past and Present

Image 1:
http://nobelprize.org/educational/medicine/malaria/readmore/global.html
Image 2:
http://nobelprize.org/educational/medicine/malaria/readmore/history.html