Malaria, a potentially deadly disease caused by a mosquito-borne parasite, is making inroads into the US, Ednews report citing NewYorkPost.
Three new cases of malaria — one in Texas and two 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 three new cases — seen in people who hadn’t traveled abroad — raise fears that local mosquitoes could be spreading the disease to other people.
“It’s always worrisome that you have local transmission in an area,” Estelle Martin, an entomologist at the University of Florida who researches mosquito-borne diseases, told Vox.
Malaria spreads when a person carrying the parasite gets bit by a mosquito. The parasite develops inside the mosquito, which then bites another person — or several other people.