Health Viewpoints
On June 26, the  CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] issued a health advisory when Texas and Florida reported cases of malaria. The five diagnoses—one in Texas and four in Florida—quickly made headlines, with CDC officials reporting that these are the first cases of malaria to originate inside the United States since 2003. The CDC notes that while the United States was once a malaria-endemic country, the disease was eliminated here in 1951.
The person [first case] in Florida resides in Sarasota County while the person in Texas, an outdoor worker, resides in Cameron County. Even though approximately 2,000 cases of severe malaria are diagnosed each year in the United States, most are acquired from travel to malaria-endemic countries. Diagnosing five cases of malaria from within the United States is considered a “medical emergency” by the CDC, recommending that “anyone with symptoms should be urgently evaluated.”…