It has defeated more armies than any general
Laid the foundations for many of today’s racial tensions
It even kick-started the modern environmental movement…
…and it’s not visible to the naked eye
The malaria parasite and the mosquito that transmits it…
…have probably affected human history…
…more than any other creatures we share the planet with
From migration to wars, politics to poverty…
…malaria continues to shape the world…
…in surprising and profound ways
Malaria has shaped the development…
…of some of the world’s most powerful institutions and empires
Ancient Rome relied on mosquito-infested marshes…
…to protect it from invaders who often succumbed to malaria
The disease cost Hannibal his right eye, his wife, his son…
…and much of his army
Without mosquitoes, Rome might have fallen
In ancient times, malaria was simply called "The Roman Fever"…
…because it was so prevalent in and around Rome
Whether it’s the Carthaginians, the Huns, the Visigoths…
… the Vandals, the Pontine Marshes…
…it essentially acts as a shield, protecting the Eternal City
That’s one of the reasons why today so many of us speak languages…
…that are derived from Latin
The Roman Empire was one of the things…
…that helped spread Christianity around Europe…
…and then ultimately the world
Some humans developed a limited immunity to the disease…
…tens of thousands of years ago…
…when the first of the series of genetic mutations…
…occurred among farmers in Africa
Thousands of years later, these mutations and the resistance they granted…
…were one reason why the transatlantic slave trade…
…was so horribly profitable
When Africans were shipped to the new world…
…to work on mosquito-infested sugar and tobacco plantations…
…they were much more likely to survive…
…than indigenous or European indentured labourers…
…who quickly died of malaria
This drove up the price of African slaves…
…and fuelled the odious trade in human beings…
…which in turn shaped the racial contours…
…of both North and South America
Malaria is one of the main reasons why today…
…a large proportion of the population of the Americas…
…are the descendants of people who were brought there involuntarily
We have to remember America went through a civil war essentially…
…partly due to slavery
Obviously, the repercussions of that we are still living with today…
…in the United States, no question
Today, Africa carries the heaviest burden of malaria
The disease still kills around 400,000 people a year
Most are children under five…
…and the vast majority of all deaths occur in Africa…
…where the disease continues to perpetuate poverty
By one estimate, malaria and tropical diseases like it…
…knock a whole percentage point off economic growth…
…in sub-Saharan Africa every year
But the death toll has fallen rapidly in the past two decades…
…thanks to drugs and insecticide-coated bed nets
And some African countries have done especially well
Senegal is one of the success stories
The rate of infection is only a fifth of what it was 20 years ago…
…and below the average for sub-Saharan Africa
The country hopes to be malaria-free by 2030
We need to show that there is a possibility in Africa…
…to go to zero cases
Part of the secret of Senegal’s success is cutting-edge genomics
Scientists here study the parasite’s DNA…
…to track how the disease is evolving…
…and identify mutations that might indicate drug resistance
The role of genomics is to support decision-making
If a drug is not working, sometimes it’s because…
…there are mutations in specific genes
The genomics work will help us to identify this
This helps policymakers keep one step ahead of the parasite…
…which has already developed resistance to a host of drugs
The first effective cure for malaria was found around 400 years ago…
…in the bark of the cinchona tree, in the Andes
Jesuit priests brought it back to Europe, but kept its origin secret
For years they curried favour with the rich and powerful…
…by curing them of malaria
Control of this wonder-drug made the Catholic church more influential
Fast forward to the second world war…
…and cinchona bark had been refined into quinine…
…and the axis powers, Germany and Japan…
…had seized most of the world’s supply…
…which gave the Japanese a big advantage in tropical battles
When the Americans surrendered on the island of Bataan…
…85% of their army had malaria
Of our 36,000 troops left in the last days of Bataan…
…20,000 were out on their feet or down with malaria
This is your enemy, remember her
The New York Times said that they lost not for want of ammunition…
…but for want of malaria pills
Without quinine, the allies were forced to rely on other pills…
…with nasty side-effects…
…and an awareness campaign about the dangers of being bitten
The female Anopheles mosquito, who hides where she can’t be seen
Aided by pamphlets drawn by American soldier Theodor Geisel…
…later known as Dr Seuss
Some of them are very sassy, if you will…
…using Ann-Opheles mosquito as a seductress, sex worker, if you will…
…who preys on unprotected GIs
So it was a multi-front war against malaria
Walt Disney used characters from this playful classic…
…to spread the message
Attaboy Dopey, spray all the dark corners and under things
After the war, governments tried to end malaria by wiping out mosquitoes
They used a new pesticide that some called…
…the atomic bomb of the insect world
It saved millions of human lives
It is a miraculous mosquito killer…
…for everything else it does, malaria rates during the 1950s…
…are reduced by 90% in numerous areas across the globe
But it also had side-effects
DDT lasted a long time and entered the food chain…
…possibly causing cancer
The over-use of DDT inspired Rachel Carson to write “Silent Spring”…
…the book that kick-started the modern green movement
In it, she warned of the dangers of slathering the planet with pesticides…
…without understanding their long-term effects
Widespread use of DDT was stopped in the 1970s
Today, scientists are working on different ways to control the disease…
…such as sequencing the genomes of the parasite
In this lab in Cambridge, in England…
…scientists would normally be looking for mutations…
…in the parasite’s DNA…
…but today, they are using their experience to sequence covid-19
It became clear that the world was going to need sequencing capacity…
…to try to answer some basic questions about the virus…
…where it was coming from, how it was spreading…
…and ultimately, whether it was going to be sensitive to vaccines
And so, it was a no-brainer that we needed to contribute to that effort
They hope the increased public awareness of disease control…
…brought about by the pandemic…
…might also help in the fight against malaria
Covid has alerted everyone…
…to the challenges of tackling an epidemic…
…and also to the need for accurate surveillance information
That is going to help us…
…feed into the way we deal with other diseases
Researchers recently estimated…
…that malaria could be eliminated within a generation…
…if an additional $2.7bn a year was spent on prevention
But with the covid-19 pandemic far from over…
…raising this extra cash could be hard
So it’s still too early to say…
…how long malaria will continue to shape the world