Women diagnosed with malaria in Washington can be the first local acquired affair of the State

Washington state officials revealed that a local woman has been diagnosed with malaria, which, so confirmed, would mark the first known case of the disease acquired in the state.

The woman was diagnosed with malaria, a disease transmitted by the mosquitoes caused by a parasite, on August 2, according to the officials. Federal and federal public health agencies are trying to confirm the source of the infection, according to a statement published on Wednesday.

Managers believe that the infection may have been transmitted by a mosquito who bit someone else who already had a case of malaria associated with the trip. The woman currently receives treatment and is closely monitored. Symptoms of the disease include fever, chills, body pain, fatigue, vomiting and diarrhea. He can take up to 30 days for an infected person to start to show symptoms.

Cases of malaria in the United States are generally linked to travel-and visitors with links with sub-Saharan African countries-and the disease is not considered endemic to the United States in fact, the United States has effectively eradicated malaria in the 1950s thanks to aggressive control measures, including pesticides and improved drainage. But the mosquito of the anopheles which transmits malaria lives throughout the country: if they bite someone infected with the disease, insects could really transmit the parasite which causes malaria to other people in the region.

Between 20 and 70 cases of malaria are recorded in Washington each year and there are generally around 2,000 cases per year in the United States, according to official estimates. Although many are linked to travel, there has been a recent increase in local infections.

In 2023, the United States experienced its first case of malaria acquired locally in 20 years. And between May and October of the same year, 10 cases of this type were reported in Florida, Texas, Maryland and Arkansas.

Climate change can lead to the incidence of local infections on malaria: parasitic which causes malaria needs hot temperatures to prosper, and research suggests that more cases of illness could occur in areas previously malaria as the planet warms up.

The United States has historically been the first country of donors to global efforts to combat malaria, according to KFF non-profit health. But these initiatives took a hit when the Trump administration reduced the country’s foreign aid programs earlier this year, including most of the Malaria President’s initiative – a USAID program launched in 2005 focused on the reduction of malaria in countries where the disease is endemic.

As part of the investigation in Washington, officials work with the United States Ministry of Health to trap and test mosquitoes. Local authorities have stressed that the inhabitants of the state region where women have been infected remain at the very low risk of contracting malaria.

“The risk of being infected with malaria in the county of Pierce remains very low,” said James Miller, Health of Health of the County of Tacoma-Pierce, in a statement. “Malaria is a rare disease overall in the United States-and the vast majority of cases in the United States occur as a result of exhibitions in countries with continuous transmission.”