Page 188 - ירושלים: גיליון רפואי

MMeeddiiccaall FFiillee NNoo.. 000016

\\52487891num

Name of disease: Malaria

Cause and Malaria is caused by a unicellular parasite called Plasmodium, transmitted to humans
transmission through the bite of an infected female Anopheles mosquito. The mosquito becomes
infected when it draws the blood of an infected human. The parasite develops in
the mosquito’s body and after eight days it can transmit the disease. In Jerusalem
the mosquito that transmits the disease has been of the species Anopheles claviger.
This species is found in Europe, and our country is the southernmost extent of
its distribution. Anopheles claviger, which adapted itself to the cool conditions of
Jerusalem’s cisterns, was responsible for the extensive presence of the disease in the
city until the period of the British Mandate.

Symptoms Malaria causes high fever, headaches, sweating and chills, and lasts from one to three
and days. Left untreated, the disease can be fatal, especially among children.
progression

Treatment The rst e ective medication for malaria was quinine, developed at the beginning
and of the 18th century and produced from the bark of a South American tree. Since that
medications time many drugs have been developed, to most of which the parasite has developed
immunity (the way bacteria become immune to antibiotics). The most e ective drug
against the disease today is Artemisinin.

Notes Malaria is found today mainly in sub-equatorial Africa and in South America. A
few hundred million people contract the disease every year; about half a million
die from it. Malaria was the most common and signi cant ailment in this region
until the British conquest of the area in World War I. In the 1920s the Mandatory
health authorities took action to eradicate the disease, in cooperation with Jewish
community institutions and according to a plan devised by Prof. Israel Kligler. Only in
1967, after decades of ghting the disease, did the World Health Organization declare
Israel malaria-free.

Name of Dr. Zalman Greenberg, Signature
physician bacteriologist

186