44-year-old woman from Cartuja de Monegros (population 350) in Huesca province has become the first case of indigenous malaria in Spain since the disease was eradicated a half century ago.
As the patient does not fall under the usual causes of contagion — foreign travel to an area where malaria is endemic, blood transfusion, organ transplant or a visit to an airport — epidemiologists have concluded that the culprit was an indigenous mosquito.
Aragon’s regional public health director, Francisco Javier Falo, played down the case’s importance, saying that the possibility of another infection is extremely low.