People acquire disabilities: https://employersforchange.ie/Acquired-Disabilities#:~:text=An%20'acquired'%20disability%20is%20a,can%20be%20visible%20and%20invisi

People acquire disabilities: https://employersforchange.ie/Acquired-Disabilities#:~:text=An%20'acquired'%20disability%20is%20a,can%20be%20visible%20and%20invisible https://employersforchange.ie/Acquired-Disabilities#:~:text=.... The important bit in your wording above isn't the 'by ones own exertions' but: "to get as one's own" Since these are people who caught malaria in the USA, rather than elsewhere and simply travelled here, the wording makes good sense.