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A? second very rare case of a person being infected with malaria from a local mosquito bite is being reported in Florida.
State health department offices in neighboring Sarasota and Manatee counties, on Florida's west coast just south of Tampa Bay, issued an advisory Monday alerting residents to the infection and noting that "the patient is being treated."
This case follows one previously reported on May 26.
U?nlike most cases of malaria in the United States, these instances are not tied to international travel.
Once widespread in places like Florida, c?ases of malaria in the U.S. are now so few that the disease is considered eradicated.
S?ome types of malaria are more dangerous to humans than others. Both recent cases in Florida are of a less deadly strain, the health department said.
"Effective treatment is readily available through hospitals and other health care providers," the advisory said. "Individuals in this area with symptoms of fever, chills, sweats, nausea/vomiting, and headache should seek immediate medical attention."
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T?he release didn't specify which county was involved in either case, but a spokesperson for the health department in Manatee County said in an email Wednesday that no cases had been confirmed there.
A?bout 2,000 cases of malaria are diagnosed nationwide each year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The vast majority are in people traveling from countries where malaria is more prevalent, including South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.
A?t total of 488 cases of malaria have been reported in Florida over the past 10 years, according to data from the state Department of Health. Of those, only one other besides the two recent cases in Florida are confirmed to have been locally transmitted.
M?alaria is transmitted by certain species of female anopheles mosquitoes, which are present throughout most of the continental United States.
P?eople with malaria aren't contagious, but mosquitoes that bite them can spread the malaria parasite.
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A?t one time, malaria was a major health issue in Florida and other parts of the U.S. The CDC was formed in 1946 specifically to combat the spread of the disease.
"Thankfully, there was a huge effort starting in probably about the early 1900s to eradicate malaria from the United States and Florida because malaria was so common in the U.S. and in our state at the time, and it had such a huge impact and caused so much mortality," Eva Buckner, an entomologist with the University Of Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory, told weather.com in an interview last month.
G?lobally, it's another story. The World Health Organization estimates that in 2021, about 247 million people in 85 countries contracted malaria and 619,000 died. Children under the age of 5 are among the groups most vulnerable.
A malaria vaccine is being administered to children in a pilot program in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi.
"Where malaria is found depends mainly on climatic factors such as temperature, humidity, and rainfall," the CDC says on its website.
Temperature in particular plays a role. One of the most severe types of malaria can't survive below 68 degrees.
In parts of Florida where it's generally warm all the time, mosquito activity is year-round.
"Certainly in the state of Florida, we have conditions where it's warm and humid and especially when you think about mosquitoes, these are conditions that are very favorable to the production of mosquitoes," Buckner said.
A? changing climate brought on by global warming is expected to influence what types of mosquitoes thrive where, and in turn could spread disease into new areas.
Weather.com reporter Jan Childs covers breaking news and features related to weather, space, climate change, the environment and everything in between.
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