I’m not with you on EITHER term — Malaria, a bacterial infection usually transmitted by mosquitoes, has been afflicting Humans AND various other species, since prehistoric times; Smallpox, a viral infection transmitted by contact and affecting only Humans, is occasionally declared ‘eradicated’ ( ignoring samples in Chem/Bio warfare lab vaults.
Jenner’s ‘cure’ for Smallpox was to preemptively afflict folks with Cowpox, a milder form of the same family of virii. I wouldn’t rate that as a ‘cure’ so much as a palliative measure.
WRT to Malaria, I don’t believe there are ANY claims of ‘cures’. Various measures affect transmission or the population of carrier mosquitoes and certain drugs can affect some symptomatic relief for the afflicted person. Over time, however, the afflicted person’s system ( including the now-resident bacterium ) tends to develop a tolerance for any drug that reduces its effectiveness and often permits full recurrence of the disease. Again, I don’t rate such outcomes within the scope of a ‘cure’.
N.B. DDT is an insecticide that affects the proliferation of the mosquitoes — IF it were permitted to be used. That might affect transmission but is entirely separate and distinct from the treatment of the disease itself.
I read recently that some UN health component claims 700 - 800 hundred thousand ‘new’ Malarial infections per year with no strong deviation in decades. I thought at the time this was seriously ‘low-balled’ ...
Since most of these cases occur in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and throughout the tropics, the ready availability of ANY measures to affect transmission or treat afflicted persons MUST be entirely suspect or even non-existent. How many subsequently die, each year ?
Malaria is caused by a protozoan of the Genus Falciparum not by a bacterium.