Congenital malaria–Nassau County, New York, 2004

Human malaria is a parasitic disease caused by four distinct species of intraerythrocytic protozoa of the genus Plasmodium. The parasites are transmitted to persons by the bite of an infective female Anopheles mosquito and rarely through blood transfusion and congenital transmission. The majority of malarial infections reported in the United States are acquired abroad by recent immigrants or persons returning from areas where malaria is endemic. This report describes the first documented case of congenital malaria acquired in Nassau County, New York, which is the fifth case of congenital malaria reported in the United States since 2000. Health-care providers should consider malaria as a diagnosis in neonates and young infants, particularly those with fever, whose mothers emigrated from areas where malaria is endemic.