Florida health officials reported a new case of malaria, bringing the total to eight in the U.S. since May, NBC News reported July 18.
The CDC is working with the Florida and Texas state governments to investigate the locally acquired mosquito-transmitted Plasmodium vivax malaria cases, and the agency said the cases in the two states are not related.
The newest case was identified in Sarasota County, where all seven of Florida's cases have been.
The CDC said that acquired infections constitute a public health emergency. However, Monica Parise, MD, director of the CDC's division of parasitic diseases and malaria, told NBC News she does not expect there will be a broad outbreak. Historically, malaria outbreaks have been "relatively small and contained."
The last malaria cases reported in the U.S. came two decades ago.