Mosquito-Borne Malaria - four cases in Florida - Sarasota County
 

https://www.floridahealth.gov/diseas...-6-26-2023.pdf

Not in our counties but wise to take the usual precautions as there are plenty of mosquitoes out and about here, too, even if non-malarial

not sure if you signed up for notifications on mosquito spraying, but it's been steady going for sometime now. i like the advance notice so i can stay inside knowing the truck will be out & about. be safe!

When we were kids we would ride our bikes behind the fog trucks and make believe we were on Mars. Amazing any of us lived.

No I haven't, PugMom - grateful if you would send me a link

Thank you

Wasn’t aware notifications were available, where does one go to sign up?

Alert Sumter

One of the alerts you can sign up for is mosquito spraying.

Four cases in a county of a half million... in a state of twenty two million. Yeah that's pretty severe. No worries though, I have a mask and will be on my way to get the shot soon as long as the sky doesn't fall on me. lol

Why would a mask do you any good against a biting insect?

You forgot to add "lol" - your comment is far funnier than the post you replied to. Only the writer could think THAT was funny, which is rather a sad indictment.

Don’t take malaria lightly, it is one nasty infectious disease. I know, I have had Babesiosis from a tick bite, which is the closest thing on this planet to malaria. Having an insect deposit a parasite into your blood stream that multiplies exponentially and destroys your red blood cells is not fun. Those red blood cells come in handy as they carry oxygen throughout your body to places like your brain, heart, liver and other vital organs and muscles. Having the disease is agony beyond description, it’s like slowly drowning on land over the course of several days. Be careful out there friends.

Quinine and Gin.

The disease I didn't think funny. The fact that people are worried about it I think is.
Sorry that people have to be worried about something that practically isn't. At breakfast this morning, this subject was all they spoke about at the next table. And yes, I laughed then as well.

I hate the use of "lol" or "rotfl"

If I have to be told that something is funny, then it probably isn't

So, just when you thought it was safe to into the water........

We have pretty good mosquito control programs, so malaria has become all but extinct here.........however, the Anopheles mosquito which carries malaria is endemic in the South. I remember something about more soldiers dying in the Civil War from malaria than bullets, but I'm sure someone will fact check that. The good and bad news is that there are only 4 cases so far. The mosquito has to bite an infected person, then bite someone else some time later to transmit the disease. Only bad part is that there are probably more than 4 infected. The other good news is that, if I'm not mistaken, malaria in the US is either P. vivax or P. ovale, but not P. falciparum. The latter is the only species that has pernicious forms such a bilious remittent fever or cerebral malaria, neither of which you want. So stay tuned......

MMWR / CDC reports that all the cases are P vivax.

You know that agency that some of think is a joke and should even be shut down. Anyway, unlike some other diseases, Malaria is less likely to spread in an area where people have not been exposed in the past.
Counter intuitive... but malaria when it is caught the first time is usually symptomatic meaning new cases will be diagnosed and treated, effectively here if the doctor thinks about malaria.

In areas with endemic malaria there are so many cases that many go undetected providing a reservoir for the next brood of mosquitoes to feed upon.


The reason for the notification is that these cases are not imported as are the usual 2000 cases a year seen in the US where persons come here having caught malaria elsewhere. That means that we have mosquitoes here that are infectious in the Sarasota area.

The usual screen question of "have you recently traveled to ...." is now not an adequate screen. Mosquito life is short and they don't travel more than a few miles from birth to death. Thus the likelihood of significant spread is very remote.