Malaria: A Brief History

This chapter provides a brief history of malaria and describes some historic perspectives and early connections of the disease in relation to human history, including its naming, origins, early efforts of control and treatment, and key discoveries. It presents a global view of its epidemiology and also discusses its geographic distribution, transmission, and risk mapping efforts. The chapter provides a concise description of malaria control, elimination, and eradication efforts, and some of the current state‐of‐the‐science research to combat the disease burden. Human malaria results from encounters between Anopheles mosquitoes, Plasmodium parasites, and humans. The epidemiology of malaria transmission and the severity of the disease vary greatly across geographical locations and within populations. In malaria control research, two related terms to combat the disease are also widely used: elimination and eradication. Recently, a growing number of countries have adopted malaria elimination as a goal.