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History of Discoveries, Malaria

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Encyclopedia of Malaria

Synonyms

Chronology, Research history

Definition

A description of some of the major research studies and discoveries in the mechanisms of malaria disease, in their historical context.

There are obvious reasons for caution when trying to answer this title’s question. First, advances are increasingly made by a team or by more than one team at about the same time – ascribing credit is uncertain and hazardous. Second, advances commonly consist of a chain of discoveries, each dependent on the last, and all being necessary to the progress in question – it can be difficult to decide which link in the chain is crucial. Third, in many areas – especially in severe and fatal disease – the pathophysiology of malaria is still not fully understood, and therefore it is not possible to judge which advances in the history of malaria research will eventually prove to have been “significant.”

No two authors would come up with the same list of important advances in the pathophysiology of malaria; the...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Medicine, University of Malawi, Blantyre, Malawi

    Malcolm E. Molyneux

  2. Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool, UK

    Malcolm E. Molyneux

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  1. Malcolm E. Molyneux
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Correspondence to Malcolm E. Molyneux .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Heswall, United Kingdom

    Marcel Hommel

  2. Institut für Tropenmedizin, Universität Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

    Peter G. Kremsner

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Molyneux, M.E. (2013). History of Discoveries, Malaria. In: Hommel, M., Kremsner, P. (eds) Encyclopedia of Malaria. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8757-9_115-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8757-9_115-1

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