100 Million Years of Malaria History
Schedule
Fri Sep 27 2024 at 06:30 pm
UTC+01:00Location
Chelsea College of Arts | London, EN
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Malaria is very likely the most ancient infectious disease with which we have to contend. In all probability it was with us when Man first became distinguishable from the other apes. Man left Africa some 100,000 years ago but it was to be many millennia later before the Malaria parasite accomplished that. It wasn't until 3,000 BC or thereabouts that it had reached Egypt, from where it spread steadily over the greater part of the populated regions of our planet, eventually reaching Europe in the fourth century BC. By the fifteenth century it had become endemic in the whole of England and Wales, being known here as The Ague or Marsh Fever. Columbus took the disease to the Americas but it was there that we were to find a cure for the disease in the form of Quinine, extracted from the bark of the so-called Fever Tree. Over the coming couple of centuries we felled just about all such trees, stimulating the establishment of plantations in Java and elsewhere. So it was that by the end of the 19th century Quinine had become affordable to even the ordinary working people in Europe. From then on the disease was slowly driven back, the last epidemic in England being in Sheerness in the Thames Estuary in 1919.Malaria remains a leading cause of mortality in low-income countries. See the WHO website for current information on malaria.
Proceeds will be donated to the speaker’s chosen charity, the Museum of Military Medicine.
This event can be attended in person at the Chelsea College of Arts in London or via Zoom by registering here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMkcu2hrTMjHNcVWfwWzthDEtOJSaX6L3Ah#/registration
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Where is it happening?
Chelsea College of Arts, 16 John Islip Street,London, United KingdomEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
