Fascinating article on the history of one of the, if not the, strongest anti Malarials available. Who would have known that Mao Zedong, in a bid to help dying North Vietnamese, commissioned top researchers and herbal healers to find a cure for malaria!
(Ironically.... Even now in Africa, in almost every country I have been the average person still uses the generally ineffective anti-malarial, Chloroquine..)
Uvealblues
The Chinese drug artemisinin has been hailed as one of the greatest advances in fighting malaria, the scourge of the tropics, since the discovery of quinine centuries ago.
Artemisinin’s discovery is being talked about as a candidate for a Nobel Prize in Medicine. Millions of American taxpayer dollars are spent on it for Africa every year.
But few people realize that in one of the paradoxes of history, the drug was discovered thanks to Mao Zedong, who was acting to help the North Vietnamese in their jungle war against the Americans. Or that it languished for 30 years thanks to China’s isolation and the indifference of Western donors, health agencies and drug companies.
Link
(Ironically.... Even now in Africa, in almost every country I have been the average person still uses the generally ineffective anti-malarial, Chloroquine..)
Uvealblues
The Chinese drug artemisinin has been hailed as one of the greatest advances in fighting malaria, the scourge of the tropics, since the discovery of quinine centuries ago.
Artemisinin’s discovery is being talked about as a candidate for a Nobel Prize in Medicine. Millions of American taxpayer dollars are spent on it for Africa every year.
But few people realize that in one of the paradoxes of history, the drug was discovered thanks to Mao Zedong, who was acting to help the North Vietnamese in their jungle war against the Americans. Or that it languished for 30 years thanks to China’s isolation and the indifference of Western donors, health agencies and drug companies.
Link
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