Malaria Frontline: Australian Army Research During World War II

Malaria, the hidden killer, plagued Australian troops in the Pacific theater of World War II so severely that the government commissioned a special research team called the Land Headquarters Medical Research Unit, a team whose story and science are documented in this medical history. Experiments were conducted on more than 800 volunteers and 300 malaria-infected soldiers who were administered the drug atebrin. The rigid atebrin discipline resulted in the lowest malaria levels ever recorded among troops, an astounding accomplishment that makes this breakthrough relevant in the ongoing international fight against malaria.