title: Historical review: Does falciparum malaria destroy isolated tribal populations?
abstract: Many isolated populations of tribal peoples were nearly destroyed when they first contacted infectious diseases particularly respiratory pathogens such as measles and smallpox. Surviving groups have often been found to have declining populations in the face of multiple social and infectious threats. Malaria, especially Plasmodium falciparum, was thought to be a major cause of depopulation in some tribal peoples isolated in tropical jungles. The dynamics of such host parasite interactions is unclear especially since most such populations would have had long histories of exposure to malaria. Three groups are individually reviewed: Meruts of Borneo, Yanomami of Amazonia, Jarawas of the Andaman Islands. The purpose of this review is to examine the role of falciparum malaria in the depopulation of some isolated tribal groups in order to understand what measures, if any, would be likely to prevent such losses.
authors.affiliation: Australian Army Malaria Institute, Enoggera, QLD 4051, Australia; University of Queensland, School of Population Health, Brisbane, QLD 4006, Australia; Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. Electronic address: dennis.shanks@defence.gov.au.
authors.forename: G Dennis
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Shanks
mesh_terms: D058872:Epidemics / Q000266:history* / Q000517:prevention & control; D049672:History, 19th Century; D006801:Humans; D016778:Malaria, Falciparum / Q000266:history* / Q000401:mortality / Q000469:parasitology; D010963:Plasmodium falciparum / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000472:pathogenicity; D011157:Population Dynamics; D044382:Population Groups / Q000266:history*
keywords: Epidemics; Falciparum; Historical; Malaria; Mortality