Malaria was a global problem before the third century. In 1632, Quinine was isolated from the barks of Cinchona succirubra tree as the first antimalarial used to
treat malaria. Its toxicity lead to synthesis of more surrogate drugs as well as insecticide targeting the parasite and mosquito respectively.
This lead to synthesis
of Chloroquine (CQ) in 1934 and by 1940s its use had gone globally viral. About
this time, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) was the first synthetic
insecticide that also gained its popularity in reducing mosquitoes. However, Plasmodium
falciparum developed resistant against CQ and DDT was causing adverse
effects on environment and health. This drastically reduced malaria in the western world, but the ban of DDT in 1972 increased mortality in developing nations from 1980.
Malaria should not be a great
burden and major threat to mankind if the public was only more aware of cost
effective and natural remedies of controlling the mosquito and hence preventing
the spread of malaria.
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