Until they travel overseas, most Americans don't think much about the mosquito-borne illness, says Dr. Phyllis Kozarsky, senior travelers' health consultant for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and a professor of medicine at Emory University in Atlanta.
"With malaria, we are so sheltered in this country we don't realize there are 300 million cases in the world per year," she says.
"We are talking about a disease that has reemerged," she says, citing places where malaria had been eradicated but has returned in strains that resist many antimalarial drugs. One strain, Plasmodium falciparum, has developed resistance to nearly all antimalarials, including chloroquine (Aralen), mefloquine (Lariam) and quinine, according to the CDC.
Symptoms usually appear nine to 14 days after the bite and include fever, headache, vomiting and others that mimic the flu. The disease is common in tropical and subtropical areas, mainly parts of Central and South America, Hispaniola (the island composed of Haiti and the Dominican Republic), Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Oceania, according to the CDC.
In November, the CDC received reports of two U.S. travelers to the Dominican Republic who contracted the disease. About 90% of the deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa, mostly among young children, the World Health Organization says.
"With malaria, we are so sheltered in this country we don't realize there are 300 million cases in the world per year," she says.
"We are talking about a disease that has reemerged," she says, citing places where malaria had been eradicated but has returned in strains that resist many antimalarial drugs. One strain, Plasmodium falciparum, has developed resistance to nearly all antimalarials, including chloroquine (Aralen), mefloquine (Lariam) and quinine, according to the CDC.
Symptoms usually appear nine to 14 days after the bite and include fever, headache, vomiting and others that mimic the flu. The disease is common in tropical and subtropical areas, mainly parts of Central and South America, Hispaniola (the island composed of Haiti and the Dominican Republic), Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Oceania, according to the CDC.
In November, the CDC received reports of two U.S. travelers to the Dominican Republic who contracted the disease. About 90% of the deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa, mostly among young children, the World Health Organization says.
Comment