CDC Warns Malaria Could Be Reintroduced in US

The United States eliminated the disease in the 1950s, the agency noted, but it imports cases when travelers return from countries with endemic malaria.

U.S. malaria cases have risen annually since 1972, said the CDC, adding that conditions are suitable for local transmission in many parts of the country, especially where Anopheles mosquitoes are indigenous. James Gathany/CDC via AP

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Thursday in a new report that malaria, a sometimes fatal blood parasitic disease, could be reestablished in the United States.

Noting that the United States eliminated malaria, which is transmitted through certain types of mosquitoes, in the early 1950s, the CDC stressed that “the country remains susceptible to malaria reintroduction.”