Florida Reports Rare Case Of Malaria

A rare case of a person infected with malaria from a local mosquito bite was reported in Florida.

State health department offices in neighboring Sarasota and Manatee counties, on Florida’s West Coast just south of Tampa Bay, issued an advisory Monday. alerting infection residents. A statement said the counties were “responding to a confirmed case of malaria in an individual who spent an extended period of time outdoors.”

Christopher Tittel, a spokesman for the Florida Department of Health in Manatee, added more details in an email to weather.com on Wednesday.

“It is assumed that the individual was bitten by a mosquito in the infected area,” Tittel said.

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about 2,000 cases of malaria are diagnosed nationwide each year, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The majority are in people traveling from countries where malaria is more prevalent, including South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

A total of 488 cases of malaria have been reported in Florida in the past 10 years, according to data from the Department of Health. Of those, only one is confirmed to have been translated locally.

“I don’t think malaria is a mosquito-borne disease that people in Florida need to worry about, given the fact that locally acquired malaria is very rare in our state and also in our country,” Eva Buckneran entomologist at the University Of Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory, told weather.com in an interview Wednesday.

Buckner said more common diseases like West Nile and dengue are a bigger concern.

How Does Malaria Spread?

Malaria is transmitted by several species of female anopheles mosquitoes, which are present in most of the continental United States.

People with malaria are not contagious, but mosquitoes that bite them can transmit the malaria parasite to other people they bite.

Some types of malaria are more dangerous to humans than others. The recent case in Florida is one of the less deadly strains, the health department said.

At one time, malaria was a major health issue in Florida and other parts of the United States. In fact, the CDC is formed in 1946 specifically to combat the spread of disease.

“Fortunately, there was a huge effort that started in the early 1900s to eradicate malaria from the United States and Florida because malaria was common in the US and our state at the time, and it had a tremendous impact and caused so. a lot of people die,” Buckner said.

Cases in the US are now so few that the disease is considered eradicated.

Around the world, it’s another story. The World Health Organization estimates that by 2021 about 247 million people in 85 countries contracted malaria and 619,000 died. Children under 5 years of age are among the most vulnerable groups.

A malaria vaccine is being given to children in a pilot program in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi.

What Role Does Weather Play?

“Where malaria is found it depends mainly due to climatic factors such as temperature, humidity, and precipitation,” the CDC says on its website.

Temperature in particular plays a role. One of the most severe forms of malaria cannot survive below 68 degrees.

In parts of Florida where it is generally warm all the time, mosquito activity is year-round.

“Certainly in the state of Florida, we have conditions where it’s warm and humid and especially when you think about mosquitoes, these are conditions that are very favorable to the production of mosquitoes,” said Buckner.

Climate change caused by global warming is expected to influence what types of mosquitoes thrive where, and may spread disease to new areas.

Weather.com reporter Jan Childs covers breaking news and features related to weather, space, climate change, the environment and everything in between.

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