# When Did Malaria Enter the New World? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 9, 2009, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-malaria-enter-the-new-world/484977 "2009-02-09T00:14:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-malaria-enter-the-new-world/484977/1 "2009-02-09T00:14:50Z")
Was it a disease that the original eurasian migrants brought with them? or was it introduced later, after Columbus? I ask becaus the Incas used cinchona bark (quinine) to treat malaria, which argues for a pre-Columbian presence. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-malaria-enter-the-new-world/484977/2 "2009-02-09T01:02:26Z")
The [Wikipedia article](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaria) suggests that it goes back to unrecorded history. 50,000 years. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-malaria-enter-the-new-world/484977/3 "2009-02-09T05:22:42Z")
Uh . . . didn’t you answer your own question? ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-malaria-enter-the-new-world/484977/4 "2009-02-09T14:41:19Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > Was it a disease that the original eurasian migrants brought with them? or was it introduced later, after Columbus? Human malaria was introduced into the Americas after Columbus’s voyage, from Europe and via African slaves. From [here:](http://www.malariasite.com/MALARIA/history_parasite.htm) > [@](#): > > Europeans and West Africans introduced malaria in the New World at the end of 15th century AD. P. vivax and P. malariae were possibly brought to the New World from South-East Asia by early trans-Pacific voyages. P. falciparum probably reached the Americas through the African slaves brought by the Spanish colonisers of Central America. > [@ralph124c](#): > > I ask becaus the Incas used cinchona bark (quinine) to treat malaria, which argues for a pre-Columbian presence. There is considerable uncertainty in whether or not indigenous peoples used cinchona bark at all before the arrival of the Spanish. It is often impossible to make definite species identifications from vague descriptions in early written accounts. If they did use it, it was to treat conditions other than malaria. The first recorded use of cinchona to treat malaria was apparently in the early 1600s. See also [here:](http://bell.lib.umn.edu/Products/cinch.html) > [@](#): > > Historians debate whether cinchona was an indigenous medicine or was discovered by Europeans. Evidence suggests that malaria did not exist in the New World before the arrival of the Spanish. Thus, according to one author, native people knew nothing about the medicinal use of cinchona bark. He supports his claim by stating that the bark did not appear in early Inca pharmacopoeias as translated by the Spanish, but does not cite a source for that information.4 ---
**Author:** ![Carptracker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ac91a4/32.png) [@Carptracker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carptracker)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-malaria-enter-the-new-world/484977/5 "2009-02-09T18:44:44Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Human malaria was introduced into the Americas after Columbus’s voyage, from Europe and via African slaves. > > There is considerable uncertainty in whether or not indigenous peoples used cinchona bark at all before the arrival of the Spanish. It is often impossible to make definite species identifications from vague descriptions in early written accounts. If they did use it, it was to treat conditions other than malaria. The first recorded use of cinchona to treat malaria was apparently in the early 1600s. Well, then how the heck did someone get the idea to use the bark of some random Central American tree to treat malaria? Someone get so sick they started chewing on bark randomly? I don’t know much about malaria, but quinine is used as a preventative (perhaps it gives some immediate relief, too). How would someone discover that the bark of this one random tree kept you from getting malaria, if you were not already using it for something else? (Btw - I don’t mean to sound incredulous - just mistified) ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-malaria-enter-the-new-world/484977/6 "2009-02-09T18:59:46Z")
> [@Carptracker](#): > > Well, then how the heck did someone get the idea to use the bark of some random Central American tree to treat malaria? According to the account in _The Miraculous Fever-Tree_ by Fiammetta Rocco, the natives chewed the bark to control shivering when they were cold. Since extreme shivering is one of the symptoms of the onset of malaria, the Spanish figured it would help alleviate the symptoms of malaria as well. As they began using it, they made the happy discovery that it not only alleviated the symptoms but seemed to have curative and preventive powers. (I’m paraphrasing because I don’t have the book in front of me.) ---
**Author:** ![Canadjun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2009, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-malaria-enter-the-new-world/484977/7 "2009-02-10T15:00:39Z")
> [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](#): > > According to the account in _The Miraculous Fever-Tree_ by Fiammetta Rocco, the natives chewed the bark to control shivering when they were cold. Since extreme shivering is one of the symptoms of the onset of malaria, the Spanish figured it would help alleviate the symptoms of malaria as well. As they began using it, they made the happy discovery that it not only alleviated the symptoms but seemed to have curative and preventive powers. > > (I’m paraphrasing because I don’t have the book in front of me.) [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinine) also says much the same thing, for those that want an on-line cite. ---
**Author:** ![BlinkingDuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eada6e/32.png) [@BlinkingDuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlinkingDuck)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2009, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-malaria-enter-the-new-world/484977/8 "2009-02-10T16:11:22Z")
> [@Carptracker](#): > > Well, then how the heck did someone get the idea to use the bark of some random Central American tree to treat malaria? Someone get so sick they started chewing on bark randomly? I don’t know much about malaria, but quinine is used as a preventative (perhaps it gives some immediate relief, too). How would someone discover that the bark of this one random tree kept you from getting malaria, if you were not already using it for something else? (Btw - I don’t mean to sound incredulous - just mistified) LOL I’ve had the same reaction at times. Those people weren’t dumb, that’s for sure. I read an article which said that anything edible was discovered by pre-modern man with the exception of the marginal macedemia nut…and some things they discovered are just plain weird and/or dangerous. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2009, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-malaria-enter-the-new-world/484977/9 "2009-02-11T23:43:26Z")
Mention has been made, of the Amazon basin-it was heavily populated (in pre-Columbian times). All of these habitations disappeared, by the 17h century-was it due to malaria?