Quinine Quinine Quinine is a medication used to treat malaria and babesiosis. This includes the treatment of malaria due to "Plasmodium falciparum" that is resistant to chloroquine when artesunate is not available. While used for restless legs syndrome, it is not recommended for this purpose due to the risk of side effects. It can be taken by mouth or used intravenously. Malaria resistance to quinine occurs in certain areas of the world. Quinine is also the ingredient in tonic water that gives it its bitter taste. Common side effects include headache, ringing in the ears, trouble seeing, and sweating. More severe
History of malaria spleen in Pedanius Dioscorides's "De Materia Medica" have been suggested to have been a response to chronic malaria in the Roman empire. Some so-called "vampire burials" in late antiquity may have been performed in response to malaria epidemics. For example, some children who died of malaria were buried in the necropolis at Lugnano in Teverina using rituals meant to prevent them from returning from the dead. Modern scholars hypothesize that communities feared that the dead would return and spread disease. In 835, the celebration of Hallowmas (All Saints Day) was moved from May to November at the behest of Pope