By Katia Hetter | CNN
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an alert this week to clinicians that there are locally acquired cases of malaria in Florida and Texas, with four cases identified in Florida and one in Texas over the past two months. While thousands of Americans become sickened by malaria every year, the vast majority of cases are acquired outside of the United States. These cases represent the first time that malaria has been transmitted within the US in 20 years, according to the CDC.
Malaria is a mosquito-borne disease that leads to about 241 million infections worldwide every year, with 95% of cases in Africa in what’s known as the World Health Organization African Region. The disease is relatively rare in the US, and many readers have questions.
What is malaria, and what are its symptoms? Can it be spread through casual contact? How is it diagnosed and treated? Are there vaccines available or other ways to prevent malaria? Why are there now cases in the US? And how worried should people be that they could contract the disease?
To help us with these questions, I spoke with CNN Medical Analyst Dr. Leana Wen. Wen is an emergency physician and professor of health policy and management at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health. She previously served as Baltimore’s health commissioner.
CNN: What is malaria, and what are its symptoms?
Dr. Leana Wen: Malaria is a serious and potentially life-threatening disease that is caused by a parasite that’s spread by the Anopheles mosquito. There are five main types of malaria parasites that are part of a family known as Plasmodiidae. Plasmodium falciparum is the type most associated with severe and fatal infections, and it contributes to substantial mortality in sub-Saharan Africa and parts of South Asia.
Plasmodium vivax is the type that’s been detected in the locally acquired cases in the US, and though it tends to cause less…
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