Re-thinking the "human factor" in malaria mortality: the case of Punjab, 1868-1940.

Recurrent, severe malaria epidemics dominated 19th century colonial Punjab's demographic history. Regression analysis supports Sir Rickard Christophers' 1911 findings that acute hunger (as reflected in foodgrain prices) was an important factor underlying these epidemics between 1868 and 1908. In the ensuing three decades, autumn malaria mortality fell dramatically to less than one-third the earlier levels though malaria transmission and infection rates across the province appear to have remained unchanged, a decline more likely attributable to decline in famine than to either medical or entomological factors.