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| Anopheles mosquito spreads malaria |
Malaria is a mosquito-borne disease which causes fever and nausea. In severe cases, it can even be fatal. Thus malaria is a disease that all tropical countries have to deal with.
This disease was a problem during the Pacific Campaign, especially for the Allies. By the 1940s, the most effective anti-malaria drug, quinine was made from the cinchona. Most cinchona could only be found in Java, Dutch East Indies (Indonesia). Unfortunately, Imperial Japan occupied Java in 1942. This denied the Allies access to the plant.
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| Cinchona plant |
After the fall of Java, the United States creates the Board for the Coordination of Malarial Studies (later part of the Office of Scientific Research and Development). The purpose was to find a good alternative to quinine.
Meanwhile, the soldiers were issued atabrine. While the drug was an effective anti-malaria, it had many side effects, including headaches, nausea and yellowing of skin. Many soldiers would not take the drug as it would reduce their combat readiness.
By 1943, the Americans discovered that chloroquine (first made in 1934) was a more effective and safe drug that atabrine. After testing, it became the main drug to be issued by 1944.
The discovery of Primaquine
In 1944, the Americans made a drug called primaquine. Unlike other anti-malarial drugs, it was particularly effective against relapsing malaria (which plague many American soldiers postwar).
The U.S. released chloroquine and primaquine to the civilian world; they became the backbone of global malaria control in the 1950s–1960s.
Conclusion
Without the loss of natural quinine in 1942 and the massive malaria casualties in Guadalcanal, New Guinea, Burma, and the Philippines, the U.S. would never have funded and fast-tracked the research that gave the world chloroquine and primaquine—the two most important synthetic antimalarials of the 20th century.
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