Malaria in the U.S.: What Do We Need to Know?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued a health advisory following the recent cases of malaria in Florida and Texas.

So how worried should we be about malaria?

The disease accounts for more than half a million deaths each year outside of the United States.

“Malaria is a potentially fatal disease that should be taken seriously everywhere,” says Shauna Gunaratne, MD, MPH, an expert in both tropical and travel medicine who has treated people with malaria at Columbia University Irving Medical Center.

Around 2,000 cases of malaria are diagnosed annually in the United States, though the vast majority of infections are acquired while traveling abroad. Mosquitoes can spread malaria when they bite someone who is infected, then carry the parasite to the next person they bite.

All of the recent cases were acquired in the United States, suggesting that mosquitoes are spreading Plasmodium, the parasite that causes malaria, right here.

“Most Americans have not encountered this parasite and do not know that it can kill you in the absence of treatment,” says microbiologist David Fidock, PhD, who has worked for over 30 years on developing treatments for malaria. “Given the global nature of infectious diseases and climate change, malaria is something everyone should be aware of.”

Read more at https://www.cuimc.columbia.edu/news.