One of the first American malaria patients in two decades has been exposed as a 21-year-old National Guard on the Texas-Mexico border.
Christopher Shingler, who was stationed on the Rio Grande near Brownsville, woke up one night in late May shaking, which quickly turned to fever and vomiting.
Doctors initially ruled his illness as a viral infection, but when medication failed to improve the condition by early June, he was subjected to further testing.
Mr. Shingler hadn’t traveled outside of the United States recently, which led to doctors initially not thinking of another disease, such as malaria.
But then, to the shock of everyone, swabs showed that he had been infected with the pathogen. Physicians have since been instructed to always think of malaria in any patient who comes to the ward with a fever, even if they haven’t traveled recently.
Christopher Shingler, stationed at the Rio Grande, is one of America’s first malaria patients in two decades. Due to his infection, the 21-year-old began to suffer from tremors, fever and vomiting since the end of May
There were also six cases in Florida. Four of these were diagnosed and treated at Sarasota Memorial Hospital (pictured). Doctors said the patients were brought in with a fever and dehydration
Mr. Shingler said: “I woke up very early in the morning and I started shaking. I just did my best to force myself to eat as little as possible, which I usually couldn’t do.”
Mr Shingler is one of seven cases of malaria diagnosed in the US since May and the only one in Texas.
The other six are all in Florida. Local doctors say these are mostly homeless people who have suffered from dehydration and fever.
Describing his symptoms to NBC News, Mr Shingler said he also found it difficult to keep down the water he drank.
The National Guardsman was hospitalized for at least 10 days before being released last month. He has fully recovered.
Mr. Shingler isn’t sure where he contracted malaria, but was often on duty at night – when the mosquitoes are most active.
“We were torn apart by mosquitoes, chiggers and everything you can think of, whatever you want to call it,” he said.
“We were torn the whole time, especially the first night.”
Doctors tested him for Covid before diagnosing malaria.
Chiggers, also called harvest mites or berry bugs, are small red mites that can bite people.
Mr. Shingler did not know of anyone in his group who had malaria.
The state Department of Health announced the case in Texas, saying it was discovered in Cameron County – which includes Brownsville – and in a person who has not recently left the United States.
Since May of this year, six cases of malaria have also been identified in Florida – four of which were treated at Sarasota Memorial Hospital.
dr Manuel Gordillo, an infectious disease expert at the hospital who helped treat the patients, said they had been coming to the wards with symptoms including fever and dehydration since late May.
Several were homeless, he said, and waited until the late stages of infection to be hospitalized.
He added, “Some of the cases neglected the symptoms and didn’t show up with other complications until much later.”
Information on the age, gender of the patients, the length of their hospital stay and the type of treatment was not given.
Patients included the first discovered in Florida and the two most recent cases. The other two were diagnosed and treated at other hospitals in the state.
Mr Shingler (pictured above) isn’t sure where he got infected but said they were “torn up” by mosquitoes every night
All of Florida is on malaria alert, including Sarasota County — where cases have been detected — and neighboring Manatee County
dr Gordillo added, “We haven’t seen these cases that are native to Sarasota.” [local infections]…since the 1950s when transmission of malaria was eradicated in the United States.
“While we see a few cases of malaria each year in Sarasota, the disease occurs in travelers and is not locally acquired.”
Malaria is a disease caused by a parasite that is transmitted to humans through the bite of an infected mosquito.
Early warning signs of the disease are fever, chills, headache and muscle pain, fatigue and nausea.
If left untreated, these can lead to complications such as anemia — a low number of red blood cells — and organ failure, which can be fatal.
Hundreds of thousands of people die from malaria every year worldwide, with 619,000 deaths recorded in 2021. With treatment, most cases are not fatal, but if they progress to a severe stage, the disease is almost always fatal.
dr Manuel Gordillo of Sarasota Memorial Hospital treated four of the six malaria patients in Florida
It is estimated that around 2,000 cases of the disease are registered in the United States each year, but they are all linked to travelers who have entered the country.
The last time a mosquito-borne disease occurred in the United States was in 2003, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
A malaria warning from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been in effect for all of Florida since June 26.
Sarasota County, where malaria has been diagnosed, and its neighboring country, Manatee County, also have their own malaria alert.
To get a handle on the situation, Sarasota officials say they have begun spraying along coastal areas where mosquitoes are known to live.
Residents are urged to use bug spray, avoid areas with mosquitoes and – especially in the evenings – to wear long clothing to avoid infection.
Doctors in the state were also warned in late June to consider any fever patient who comes to the hospital as a potential case of malaria.
The disease is transmitted by mosquitoes, which transmit it to humans by sucking blood. Humans cannot transmit the disease to one another.
Experts suspect malaria may have returned to Florida after mosquitoes bite someone who returned from abroad and contracted the infection.
The insects then contracted the disease and transmitted it to other people through a bite, triggering local cases.
Malaria was eradicated in the United States in the 1950s after an extensive public health program that included spraying pesticides from airplanes and draining potential mosquito breeding grounds.
Since then, however, there have been sporadic cases – but these are generally related to international travel and have not resulted in major transmission.
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