Malaria: 2 more locally acquired malaria cases discovered in Florida, bringing recent US total to 7

More locally acquired malaria cases have been detected in the United States, bringing the total to seven across the country.

In a recent report, Florida health officials said they detected two more cases of mosquito-borne disease in Sarasota County.

It comes just two weeks after four people in Sarasota County and one person in Cameron County, Texas, they were found to have malaria.

ABC News contacted the Texas Department of State Health Services to see if any other cases had been identified in the state, but did not immediately respond.

These are the first locally acquired cases of malaria in the United States since 2003. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a health advisory last week warning doctors and public health officials in affected areas to be watch out for other cases.

The disease is caused when a person is bitten by a mosquito carrying malaria parasites, the CDC said. Malaria is not contagious and cannot be passed from person to person.

According to the CDC, people infected with malaria often experience symptoms such as fever, chills, and flu-like illness. It can also cause anemia and jaundice due to loss of red blood cells.

Although about 2,000 cases of malaria are diagnosed in the United States each year, these cases typically involve people who have traveled to countries where transmission is common, such as sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

Malaria was once commonly contracted in the United States, but a public health campaign beginning in 1947 of spraying insecticides on the interior surfaces of rural homes or entire premises in counties where malaria was prevalent – as well as eradicating mosquito breeding sites and drainage – – led to total elimination of transmission by 1950.

The World Health Organization estimates that in 2021, the latest year for which data is available, there were 247 million cases of malaria worldwide and 619,000 people died from the disease.

Any patient suspected of having malaria should be tested and treated promptly, the CDC said, because the disease can be fatal.

After the first cases were detected, the Florida Department of Health issued a statewide mosquito-borne disease advisory on June 26.

The department said the four patients initially declared ill “have been treated and recovered,” but the status of the remaining patients is unclear.

The CDC says the risk to the public from locally transmitted malaria is low. People living in areas where cases have been reported should take steps to prevent mosquito bites by using insect repellent, wearing long-sleeved shirts and pants, using screens on windows, and draining water stagnant.