Risk of Malaria back in the US for first time in 20 years

Malaria by Mosquito Malaria is spread by mosquitoes carrying the malaria parasite. Getty Images

Luke 21:11 There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.

Important Takeaways:

  • Malaria, a potentially deadly disease caused by a mosquito-borne parasite, is making inroads into the US.
  • Five new cases of malaria — one in Texas and four in Florida — are alarming officials because they were locally acquired, meaning a mosquito in the US was carrying the parasite.
  • That hasn’t happened since 2003 in Palm Beach County, Florida, according to the Centers for Disease and Prevention.
  • Almost all cases of malaria now seen in the US are from people who traveled outside the country, where they were exposed to disease-carrying mosquitoes.
  • But these five new cases — seen in people who hadn’t traveled abroad — raise fears that local mosquitoes could be spreading the disease to other people.
  • But people with the parasite in their blood don’t always have symptoms, making it easy for the disease to spread when an asymptomatic person is bit.
  • Symptoms of malaria include fever, shaking, chills, headache, muscle aches, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and tiredness, according to the CDC.
  • If it’s not treated promptly, the infection can cause jaundice, anemia, kidney failure, seizures, mental confusion, coma and death.

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