The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued an alert this week after the spread of malaria occurred within the United States for the first time in 20 years.
Four cases of malaria, caused by the plasmodium parasite, were detected in Florida, according to a CDC health alert issued Monday. Another case was found in Texas, it said.
The disease is caused by a parasite that spreads via mosquito bites, with the largest number of deaths occurring in tropical places—namely sub-Saharan Africa. Symptoms include chills, fever, tiredness, headache, muscle aches, vomiting, diarrhea, and nausea, while anemia and jaundice—a yellowing of the skin and eyes—may also occur.
If left untreated, infected individuals could develop more serious complications and die, officials say.
The CDC alert Monday said that there is “concern for a potential rise in imported malaria cases associated with increased international travel in” the summer of 2023, adding that there is also a “need to plan for rapid access to” intravenous artesunate, a medication that derives from the sweet wormwood plant Artemisia annua. The CDC classifies the drug as “the first-line treatment” for severe cases of malaria in the United States.
The agency further added that it is working with two U.S. health departments to investigate the locally acquired mosquito-transmitted Plasmodium vivax malaria cases,” adding that there isn’t any evidence to suggest that the Florida and Texas cases “are related.”
“In Florida,” it said, “four cases within close geographic proximity have been identified, and active surveillance for additional cases is ongoing. Mosquito surveillance and control measures have been implemented in the affected area.”
“In Texas, one case has been identified, and surveillance for additional cases, as well as mosquito surveillance and control, are ongoing,” the health alert said. “All patients have received treatment and are improving.”
It noted that locally transmitted mosquito-borne malaria hasn’t occurred in the United States since 2003 when about eight cases of the illness were found in Palm Beach County, also located in Florida. The alert said that some species of anopheles mosquitos, found in multiple areas around the United States, can transmit the parasitic disease if they feed on an infected individual.
The Texas Department of State Health Services last reported the detection of a local malaria case in a person who had been working outdoors. That individual, it said, had not traveled outside the country or state.
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5 people have acquired malaria in the US. They’re the first in 20 years.
