Table 1 Main steps about the history of malaria.

Ancient history

- ≈ 1570 BC

Ebers Papyrus: description of symptoms (fever and spleen enlargement);

- ≈ 1000 BC

Atharvaveda: description of symptoms and recurrence of the fever;

- ≈ 460 - 370 BC

Hyppokrates of Kos in his work Epidemie describes the intermittent fever;

- 340 AD

Ge Hong, China, describes the anti-fever properties of qing hao.

17 ^th century

First description of Peruvian bark (Cinchona), from which quinine is extracted.

1880

Alphonse Laveran: the discovery of the Malaria parasite.

1885 - 1889

Camillo Golgi: the differentiation of different form of Malaria.

1897 - 1898

Ronald Ross: the Plasmodium is transmitted by "a mosquito".

1898 - 1899

Giovan Battista Grassi: the Plasmodium life cycle.

1905 - 1910

The control of malaria and yellow fever make possible the construction of the Panama Canal.

1914 - 1942

The U.S. Public Health Services and the U.S. Tennessee Valley Authority: the integration of Malaria control with the U.S. economic development

1934 - 1946

A new antimalarial drug: chloroquine.

19 ^th - 20 ^th century

- 1874

Othmar Zeidler describes the synthesis of DDT;

- 1939

Muller demonstrates the insecticidal property of DDT

1955 - 1978

WHO Malaria Eradication Efforts: an unsuccessful "global" campaign with the exclusion of sub-Saharan Africa.

21 ^st century

The knowledge of genetic map and the research for an effective vaccine.