[Relationship between malaria, environment, people and civilisation in central Italy. Reclamation of the Fucino plain].
In this article the incidence of malaria in the course of history is cited as a paradigmatic example of pathocenosis - emergence of new infectious diseases related to the environmental conditions or to the different ecology of the infected host - as malaria is affected by climatic variations and environmental deterioration. The incidence of malaria in the Mesolithic and Neolithic ages is briefly evaluated. Moreover, the finds from a necropolis in the Sele river plain established the effect that the land reclamation of the wetland during the Etruscan period induced on the porotic hyperostosis, an indirect index of malaria sustained by Plasmodium falciparum. In addition, we consider the reclamation in the area of the Fucino plain, a volcanic basin without outflow, whose shores were therefore unhealthy. In the reign of the Claudius, in the early years of the Roman Empire, a tunnel was built to provide an outflow, thereby draining the wetlands. The results of this engineering intervention lasted for six centuries. During medieval times the area was neglected, thus creating the pre-existing insalubrious environmental conditions. It was only during the Bourbon period in the 19th century that a new intervention was initiated, subsequently completed by Prince Torlonia, which allowed the wetlands to be definitively transformed into farmland.
Sabbatani
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U.O. di Malattie Infettive - Ospedale Maggiore di Bologna, Italy.
D004777:Environment; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049690:History, Ancient; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D008288:Malaria / Q000266:history*