SARASOTA, Fla. — Sarasota County Mosquito Management is asking residents to continue safety precautions as they confirm the fifth and sixth cases of malaria in the last two months.
“It's important to take this serious. We've had local transmission. Multiple people have caught it,” Wade Brennan, manager of Sarasota County Mosquito Management, said in a press conference Monday.
He stressed that it takes four to six weeks to kill off mosquitoes with the virus and stop the spread, something they’ve been efforting since the end of May.
“With malaria, the parasite has to incubate in the mosquito first and then it has to be transmitted to a human and then it has to incubate in the human to transmit to the next mosquito,” he explained.
All six human malaria cases are in the Desoto Acres and Kensington Park area.
Mosquito management has only detected malaria in three mosquitos so far, and that was more than a month ago.
Residents exercising near the lake at Nathan Benderson Park Monday said they’re not worried.
“The way I understand it, there’s always been a small amount of Malaria cases every year, so if I’m in a place where there’s gonna be mosquitoes, I’ll put some repellent on, but otherwise, I’m pretty confident we’ll be okay,” said Ian Lee.
“There’s many other things to worry about besides mosquitoes right now with malaria,” added Rob Rafter.
Florida Health Charts' latest data shows there were 44 malaria cases in Florida in 2021, compared to 18 in 2020 and 52 in 2019.
But according to the CDC, the 6 cases in Sarasota and 1 in Texas are the first locally acquired cases in the U.S. in 20 years.
Currently, Sarasota, Manatee, and Miami-Dade counties are under mosquito-borne illness alerts. Polk and Orange counties are under advisories, according to the health department's latest arbovirus report.
Sarasota County Mosquito Management is targeting marsh areas like ponds, canals, and swamps with what they call larvicides, essentially pesticides that kill off immature mosquitoes before they can bite.
“Since the onset of malaria in Sarasota, we've treated over 470 miles by trucks, that's nighttime spray miles, and we've treated over 36,000 acres in this same area as well,” Brennan said.
Mosquitoes only travel about a mile. There’s no indication that the infected mosquitoes have traveled out of the North Sarasota area.
Mosquito management advises everyone in the North Sarasota area to:
- Avoid being outside between dusk and sunrise.
- Wear repellent and loose-fitting long-sleeved shirts and long pants.
- Drain any standing water on your property.
- Remove aquatic vegetation from ponds, lakes, canals, ditches
For more information on Mosquito Management Services, mosquito-borne illness, spray missions or to submit a service request, call 311 or visit here.
