Malaria is back in the U.S. – The CDC identified the first people to be infected with Malaria while in the U.S. in 20 years, with climate change possibly playing a role by increasing mosquito activity and shortening the amount of time needed for mosquito larvae to mature into adults.
Of the 5 cases identified, one occurred in Texas and four occurred in a single county of Florida – Sarasota County, just south of Tampa.
Malaria is not a bacterial, viral, or fungal infection – It’s caused by protozoan parasites which invade and kill individual human liver and blood cells, and can even reach as deep as bone marrow. As more and more blood cells are destroyed, your body becomes anemic and oxygen deprived. Eventually the parasites begin binding to the walls of a person’s veins and arteries. In the lungs, that leads to respiratory failure. In the kidneys, it leads to kidney failure. In the brain, it leads to coma.
Fortunately, Malaria is usually treatable as long as it’s caught early.
Unfortunately, U.S. doctors aren’t trained to look for it anymore since Malaria was mostly eradicated in the U.S. by 1951.
It was eradicated by draining millions of acres of wetlands, dumping diesel fuel onto lakes and swamps, spraying cities and towns with DDT from airplanes and trucks, and spraying the interior of over 6 million homes with DDT.
