Panama’s Health Ministry has detected 34 malaria cases among informal workers who remain around Merca Panamá, prompting testing, treatment and mosquito-control operations near the country’s principal wholesale food market.
The ministry announced the cases on the night of October 14. Merca Panamá is located beside the Centenario highway in Ancón, on the western edge of Panama City.
Health authorities said the epidemiological investigation suggests the cluster may be connected to people arriving from provinces where malaria is endemic, some of whom did not know they were infected. Investigators have also identified mosquito-risk areas around the market, although the precise locations where the infections occurred have not been established.
The ministry is searching for additional symptomatic patients, collecting diagnostic samples, monitoring confirmed cases and administering treatment. Vector-control teams are fumigating and conducting interventions in identified risk zones and surrounding areas.
Officials stressed that malaria cannot be transmitted through buying, handling or eating food. The disease is caused by Plasmodium parasites and is transmitted primarily through bites from infected Anopheles mosquitoes.
Those mosquitoes are most active between dusk and dawn. People who work, sleep or remain around Merca Panamá overnight are therefore being advised to use mosquito repellent and wear clothing covering their arms and legs.
Typical symptoms include fever, chills, sweating and headaches, sometimes accompanied by vomiting. Symptoms commonly appear between 10 and 15 days after an infectious bite. Anyone experiencing them should seek medical evaluation rather than self-medicate.
The ministry has not disclosed how many people were screened, the condition of the 34 patients or which malaria parasite was identified. It has also not formally confirmed that all the infections originated around the market.
Panama had recorded 5,298 malaria cases through epidemiological week 34 of 2026, down from 7,758 during the equivalent period of 2025 and 10,663 in 2024. Transmission has historically been concentrated in Darién, indigenous regions and parts of Bocas del Toro, Veraguas and eastern Panama.
Sources: TVN Noticias
