The Fight Against Malaria in Macedonia During the Two World Wars

Abstract

For millennia, especially along the Vardar, Struma, and Crna Reka rivers, malaria has been a problem in Macedonia. Fighting infectious malaria, which took thousands of lives each year and caused suffering in millions more, was neither straightforward nor easy. For Macedonia, the introduction of organized medical care using cutting edge scientific theories to avoid infectious diseases like malaria was truly a privilege. Dr. Andria Shtampar and his standing in the world medical community played a pivotal part in all of this effort, providing enormous funding for the building of facilities and the acquisition of cutting-edge equipment to fight infectious diseases. The history of medicine has not yet taken notice of this rapid advancements in preventative medicine and the construction of healthcare facilities. In just 5 years, the entire territory of Macedonia was covered by a health network, and medical practices that until then were completely unknown. The principles and scientific concepts of social medicine, whose creator was Shtampar himself, led to a sharp increase of the standards in the fight against a number of infectious diseases that were until then considered inconclusive.

Keywords: malaria, Macedonia, Andrija Shtampar.