Is Malaria Making a Comeback in the US?

[BWV]

5 cases of locally transmitted malaria in the US
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/heal...aria-acquired-locally-texas-florida-rcna91192

Vivax used to be endemic for most of the country with the more deadly falciparum entrenched in the South. The importation of Malaria by Europeans was a primary factor in creating a demand for African slaves, which had an acquired resistance to falciparum.

Scary stuff- malaria was eradicated in the US in the 40s with massive use of DDT. These cases are all apparently vivax. I wonder if the political will would be there if strong actions were needed to prevent malaria's re-establishment

 

[pinball1970]

5 cases of locally transmitted malaria in the US
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/heal...aria-acquired-locally-texas-florida-rcna91192

Vivax used to be endemic for most of the country with the more deadly falciparum entrenched in the South. The importation of Malaria by Europeans was a primary factor in creating a demand for African slaves, which had an acquired resistance to falciparum.

Scary stuff- malaria was eradicated in the US in the 40s with massive use of DDT. These cases are all apparently vivax. I wonder if the political will would be there if strong actions were needed to prevent malaria's re-establishment
View attachment 328425

Climate? Anything else in terms of pathogens? Migration?

 

[BWV]

The one Texas case was in the southernmost county that contains Brownsville and Harlingen, not sure about the FL cases

 

[pinball1970]

The one Texas case was in the southernmost county that contains Brownsville and Harlingen, not sure about the FL cases

Low risk in central America according to this data from 2020

https://ourworldindata.org/malaria.

Malaria can be dramatically impacted with a concerted effort and resource.

This from 100 years old technology and no commercial pesticides available.

https://www.cdc.gov/malaria/about/h...laria was,development programs in the tropics.

 

[BWV]

Falciparum is almost non-existent in central America:

while Vivax is fairly common

From this cool site:
https://data.malariaatlas.org/maps?....846136032,7147747.731010281,9463217.59670736
the map is incidence rate, and the scales are somewhat different, but you get the idea. Interesting that Vivax does not seem to exist in West Africa, its all the more lethal falciparum

 

[Laroxe]

Climate? Anything else in terms of pathogens? Migration?

Malaria was endemic in large parts of the US and it took a lot of effort to eradicate it, a lot of European countries continue to use preventative measures to prevent it becoming re-established. When the eco political lobby managed to get DDT banned, there was a marked increase in deaths in Africa, some countries have returned to using it. This will be from someone infected coming from abroad, female mosquitoes like a blood meal before breeding, some apparently like two meals and these are the problem if one bites an infected individual and then bites someone else that's when you get transmission. All the cases in the USA identified, have been successfully treated. So the question now is are there any more infected and if there are quite a few the chance of it becoming established increases. It's the increase in international travel and trade that's the big problem these days, there is currently a surge in measles cases across the world, so they advising people who want to travel to get their immunisations boosted. The return of some of the old diseases could be a much bigger problem than malaria.