Sarasota County reports 7th case of locally contracted malaria

Sarasota County has documented a seventh case of malaria, state authorities said.

The Florida Department of Health reported a new locally acquired case of malaria in Sarasota County during the week of July 9 to 15. That’s in addition to five cases last month and one case in May.

Sarasota County and Manatee County directly to the north have been under a mosquito-borne illness alert for nearly a month. The area is located on the Gulf of Mexico, just south of Tampa Bay.

Sarasota County officials have been using aircraft, trucks and ground crews to apply insecticide to the area where the malaria cases were reported. Mosquito control workers are trapping the insects and sending them to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for evaluation.

About 2,000 U.S. cases of malaria are diagnosed each year — the vast majority in travelers coming from countries where malaria commonly spreads.

Since 1992, there have been 11 outbreaks involving malaria from mosquitoes in the U.S. The last one occurred in 2003 in Palm Beach County, where eight cases were reported.