CDC reports locally acquired malaria in two US states

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has published an alert after five cases of locally transmitted malaria were reported in the past two months—four cases in Florida and one in Texas.1

It is the first time in 20 years that locally transmitted malaria has been reported in the US. There were about 247 million cases of malaria worldwide, about 95% of them in Africa, and an estimated 619 million deaths from malaria in 2019, according to the World Health Organization.2

In the alert published on 26 June, the CDC said all cases were caused by Plasmodium vivax malaria and that the patients had received treatment and were improving.

The four cases in Florida occurred in Sarasota County on the west coast …