The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a warning this week about the first locally transmitted malaria cases in the country in nearly two decades."This new outcropping of a few cases at the moment does not represent any new real disease threat to U.S. citizens," said Dr. James Neid, an infectious disease specialist at the Medical Center of Aurora, in Colorado."It is a parasitic infection that is acquired by a mosquito bite," Dr. Neid said.
"Fortunately, I think the type of malaria that's here, the species that's here in the U.S., isn't the one that classically causes severe life threatening malaria, although it can. But we certainly have treatments readily available if the diagnosis is appropriately made," Dr. Neid said.
"Falciparum malaria is the feared species of malaria that can cause life threatening disease and result in death. That is not what was transmitted," Dr. Neid explained. Different mosquitoes can carry different viral illnesses. However, those who live in Florida and Texas, where the cases have been reported by the CDC, may want to consider prevention methods.Of the more than 240 million cases of malaria that occur every year worldwide, 90% are in Africa, according to the CDC. Before the pandemic, around 2,000 cases of mostly travel-related malaria were diagnosed in the U.S. Around 300 people experienced severe disease.