The Canterbury DHB has dealt with two cases of malaria in just two weeks.

Notifiable Diseases figures show there's normally three-to-six cases in the region each year.

Medical Officer Dr Ramon Pink said that one person contracted the disease in South America and the other in Africa, before they returned to New Zealand.

Just one of them required hospital treatment.

Dr Pink said the disease is mainly transmitted by mosquitoes, and very rarely by humans.

He said transmission between people can occur in particular circumstances, however, for example if an infected person passes it to someone who isn't infected "through blood transfusion or organ donation"