The NeiChing (The Canon of Medicine) first mentions malaria-like symptoms around 4700 BCE. The document includes malaria treatments, such as using the Qinghao plant to reduce fever.
Malaria has been recognized since the Greek and Roman civilizations over 2,000 years ago. The patterns of fever in patients (quartan, tertian, and semi-tertian) were described by the early Greeks. Hippocrates recorded the manifestations of malaria in the 4th century BCE, the time of year, and the places where victims fell ill. Also, Hippocrates was supposedly the first to distinguish intermittent malaria fever from the continual fever of other infectious diseases. Malaria has been long known to be associated with swamps. It was hypothesized that the wind transmitted malaria, and its modern name in English is derived from the Italian malaria from mala aria, literally meaning “bad air.” The first possible use of the name was by Italian physician Francisco Torti in the 17th to 18th century.
