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The Burden of Early Exposure to Malaria in the United States, 1850–1860: Malnutrition and Immune Disorders

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 2007

Sok Chul Hong
Sok Chul Hong*
Affiliation:
Senior Research Associate, Center for Population Economics, University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, 5807 S. Woodlawn Ave., Chicago, IL 60637. E-mail: [email protected].
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Abstract

This article uses nineteenth-century evidence to calculate the impact of early exposure to malaria-ridden environments on nutritional status and the immune system in America. I estimate the risk of contracting malarial fevers in the 1850s by using correlations between malaria and environmental factors such as climate and geographical features. The study demonstrates that Union Army recruits who spent their early years in malaria-endemic counties were 1.1 inches shorter at enlistment due to malnutrition and were 13 percent more susceptible to infections during the U.S. Civil War as a result of immune disorders than were those from malaria-free regions.

Type
ARTICLES
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 67 , Issue 4 , December 2007 , pp. 1001 - 1035
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 2007

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