Five people have recently contracted malaria on U.S. soil, marking the first occurrence in 20 years.
Malaria, a disease caused by Plasmodium parasites and transmitted to humans by Anopheles mosquitoes, used to be prevalent in the United States. However, the widespread use of the insecticide DDT helped eliminate parasite-infected mosquitoes, eradicating malaria within the country’s borders by 1951.
Despite this, malaria continues to be a problem in many countries worldwide. The World Health Organization reports over 200 million cases of malaria annually, with the majority of deaths occurring in Africa. In December 2021, the organization approved a malaria vaccine for children in sub-Saharan Africa.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, around 2,000 cases of malaria were diagnosed in the United States each year. These cases were exclusively in individuals who had traveled to regions where the disease is common and returned home with the parasites. However, the five cases in Texas and Florida were not travel-related, indicating that the individuals contracted the disease from local mosquitoes.
2023-06-30 14:00:00
Post from www.sciencenews.org
