PICTURED: Texas man, 21, among first US malaria patients in two decades

One of America’s first domestic malaria sufferers in two decades has been revealed as a 21-year-old National Guardsman on the Texas-Mexico border.

Christopher Shingler, who was stationed on the Rio Grande near Brownsville, awoke one night in late May shaking, which soon turned into fever and vomiting.

Doctors initially dismissed his illness as a viral infection, but when drugs failed to clear up the illness in early June, he was tested further.

Mr. Shingler had not recently traveled outside the US, so doctors did not initially consider another illness, such as malaria.

But then, much to everyone’s shock, swab tests revealed that he was infected with the pathogen. Doctors have since been told to always consider malaria in patients who come to the ward with a fever, even if they have not traveled recently.

Mr. Shingler said, “I woke up very early in the morning and started shaking. It was a lot of trying to get myself to eat something, as small as I could, which most of the time failed.”

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, according to local doctors, mostly homeless people suffering from dehydration and fever.

Describe his symptoms NBC newsMr. Shingler said he would also have trouble keeping down all the water he drank.

The National Guardsman was hospitalized for at least ten days before being discharged last month. He has fully recovered.

Mr. Shingler is not sure where he contracted malaria, but he was often on duty at night – when the mosquitoes are most active.

“We were torn apart by mosquitoes, fleas, whatever you can think of, you can name it,” he said.

“We were torn apart the entire time we were there, especially that first night.”

Doctors tested him for Covid before diagnosing malaria.

Chiggers, also known as harvest mites or berry bugs, are small red mites that can bite humans.

Mr. Shingler was unaware that anyone else in his group had malaria.

Announcing the Texas case, the Department of Health said it was discovered in Cameron County — which includes Brownsville — and in a person who had not recently traveled outside the United States.

Since May this year, six cases of malaria have also been detected 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 since late May with symptoms such as fever and dehydration.

Several were homeless, he said, and had waited to get to the hospital until the later stages of infection.

He added: “Some of the cases were sort of a neglect of the symptoms and they came on with other complications much later.”

Details about the age and sex of the patients, how long they were in hospital and how they were treated were not given.

The patients included the first to be detected in Florida and the two most recent cases. The other two were diagnosed and treated at other hospitals in the state.

Dr. Gordillo added, “These cases, native here in Sarasota, we haven’t seen any cases that were [local infections]… since the 1950s, when malaria transmission was eradicated in the United States.

“We do see a few cases of malaria a year in Sarasota, but this is from travelers and not contracted locally.”

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 include fever, chills, headache, muscle aches, fatigue, and nausea.

Without treatment, these can develop into complications such as anemia – a low red blood cell count – and organ failure, which can be fatal.

Malaria kills hundreds of thousands of people worldwide each year, with 619,000 recorded deaths by 2021. With treatment, most cases are non-fatal, but when they reach the severe stage, the disease almost always leads to death.

About 2,000 cases of the disease are recorded in the US each year, estimates suggest, but all are related to travelers entering the country.

The last time a mosquito-borne illness occurred in the US was in 2003, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

All of Florida is under a malaria alert issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on June 26.

Sarasota County, where malaria has been discovered, and neighboring Manatee County are also under their own malaria alert.

Sarasota officials say they have begun spraying along coastal areas where mosquitoes are known to bring the situation under control.

Residents are urged to use bug spray, avoid mosquito-infested areas and wear long clothing – especially in the evening – to avoid infection.

Doctors in the state were also warned in late June to consider fever patients coming to the hospital as a possible case of malaria.

The disease is transmitted by mosquitoes, which carry it into humans when they suck their blood. People cannot pass the disease on to each other.

Experts suggest that malaria probably returned to Florida after mosquitoes bit someone returning from abroad and had the infection.

The insects then contracted the disease and transmitted it to other people when they bit them, causing local cases.

Malaria was eradicated in the United States in the 1950s following a massive public health program that sprayed pesticides from airplanes and drained potential mosquito breeding grounds.

But sporadic cases have surfaced repeatedly since then — though they are generally related to international travel and have not led to wider transmission.