Maryland health officials report resident with locally acquired malaria

Aug. 18 (UPI) -- A Maryland resident has come down with malaria without traveling abroad, the Maryland Department of Health said Friday.

The MDH said it "has confirmed and reported a positive case of locally acquired malaria in a Maryland resident who lives in the National Capital Region."

"The individual was hospitalized and is now recovering. They did not travel outside the United States or to other U.S. states with recently locally acquired malaria cases," the MDH said in a press release Friday.

In June, the Texas Department of State Health and Services reported one case of locally acquired malaria and in July, officials in Florida reported seven cases of locally acquired malaria.

The cases were the first reported in the United States in the past two decades.

Maryland Department of Health Secretary Laura Herrera Scott said, "Malaria was once common in the United States, including in Maryland, but we have not seen a case in Maryland that was not related to travel in over 40 years."

Though locally acquired malaria is extremely rare in the United States, there are over 2,000 yearly cases of malaria reported in the United States, with most cases occurring in people returning from abroad.

The MDH emphasized that "the risk to the public for locally acquired mosquito-transmitted malaria remains very low."