The art of medicine: The long shadow of malaria interventions in tropical Africa
Because most tropical Africans had survived childhood malarial infections and acquired some degree of functional immunity, adult Africans tended to underestimate the severity of the disease and to view malaria as a white man's medical issue. Selftreatment with chloroquine became so widespread t...
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| Published in: | The Lancet (British edition) 2009-12, Vol.374 (9705), p.1883 |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | eng |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Get full text |
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| Summary: | Because most tropical Africans had survived childhood malarial infections and acquired some degree of functional immunity, adult Africans tended to underestimate the severity of the disease and to view malaria as a white man's medical issue. Selftreatment with chloroquine became so widespread that it may have been the single most epidemiologically efficacious intervention in the modern history of African malaria. Because most of the chloroquine was imported through networks of private traders and sold by African shopkeepers, the extent of chloroquine use cannot be quantified, and thus the relation between chloroquine use and the rapid rates of African population growth can only be imputed. |
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| ISSN: | 0140-6736 1474-547X |