Several Florida counties recently declared a local state of emergency in response to a surge in dengue infections.
Officials in Hillsborough County, Florida, made the declaration on September 24 as health officials recorded 134 confirmed cases of dengue fever, a mosquito-borne illness typically found in countries outside the United States. Officials said the spread of the disease poses “an immediate and widespread threat to the public health, safety and welfare of residents and visitors to Hillsborough County.”
Controlling this tropical disease — often called broken fever because it can cause extreme pain — requires “immediate, aggressive and ongoing” measures such as pesticide application, public education and emergency resource planning, officials said.
Cases of dengue fever have become more common in some areas of the United States. In 2023, Long Beach and Pasadena reported the first known locally acquired cases in California.
The spread of dengue mosquitoes outside tropical and subtropical regions has even affected England, with authorities recently announcing that Aedes aegypti had been found in houses in east London.
Scientists say global warming is poised to intensify climate-related diseases.
Declaring a local state of emergency allows Hillsborough County – whose seat is the city of Tampa – to request “all available and necessary state, federal and local emergency funds, grants, financial assistance and mutual aid” in their ongoing fight against dengue-carrying mosquitoes. The initial declaration was in effect for one week, but authorities can extend it.
Neighboring Pasco and Pinellas counties also declared similar states of emergency in connection with the dengue reports.
The Florida Department of Health said in its recent report on mosquito-borne viruses that 26 cases of dengue fever linked to international travel were reported in the state during a six-day period beginning September 13. There have been a total of 212 known travel-related cases in Florida reported so far in 2026.
During the same period, 38 locally acquired cases of dengue fever were reported in Florida. They were among 190 locally acquired dengue cases in Florida, the state health department said.
Figures from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) differ slightly. On Monday, the CDC noted that 392 total dengue cases had been reported in Florida for the year so far, along with varying county-level data.
Dengue fever is contracted by the bite of certain species of mosquitoes, largely Aedes aegyptias well as Aedes albopictus. Both species are present in Florida.
Symptoms appear between three days and two weeks after a bite from an infected mosquito. Symptoms include “sudden onset of fever, severe headache, eye pain, muscle and joint pain…and bleeding. Gastrointestinal symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhea may also be present in some cases,” the Florida State Department of Health said.
Symptoms usually last four days to a week. A rarer form of the disease called dengue hemorrhagic fever can be fatal without proper supportive care, the state health department said.
Hillsborough County officials have expressed optimism that dengue infections will slow in the coming weeks, with no “mosquito test pools” recently testing positive, according to local media outlet Bay News 9.
Gn Health
