Florida Malaria Cases: Why an Outbreak Returned to the U.S. This Summer

A vector-borne outbreak of Florida malaria cases is now under control. Here’s what to expect going forward.

In May 2023, a person caught malaria from a bug bite in Sarasota County, Florida. In response, the Florida Department of Public Health went to war with Anopheles, better known as the marsh mosquito.

Ground teams poured insecticide into standing water. Airplanes sprayed down remote wetlands with larvae-killer. Finally, after two months, marsh mosquitoes — and new malaria cases — became scarce again.

“It was a full-on assault on these mosquitoes,” says Florida Department of Public Health Press Secretary Jae Williams. “And I’ll tell you, it was very, very successful.”

All in all, eight Americans caught malaria from mosquitoes this summer — seven in Florida and one in Texas. Of these, seven people were hospitalized. The cases were the first American, mosquito-borne malaria cases in two decades, since an outbreak in Palm Beach, Florida in 2003.

To be clear, ...

Gabe Allen
Gabe Allen is a Colorado-based freelance journalist focused on science and the environment. He is a 2023 reporting fellow with the Pulitzer Center and a current master's student at the University of Colorado Center for Environmental Journalism. His byline has appeared in Discover Magazine, Astronomy Magazine, Planet Forward, The Colorado Sun, Wyofile and the Jackson Hole News&Guide.
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