Florida is recording the largest state-level dengue outbreak in the United States in more than a decade, with over 250 local cases and one death so far this year, according to data from the state Department of Health released on Monday.
The southern U.S. state recorded 252 local infections of the mosquito-borne virus through the 38th week of the year (ending September 26), in addition to 245 imported cases—meaning infections contracted by travelers elsewhere—according to a Department of Health report.
The outbreak is poised to surpass the 264 local cases recorded in Hawaii over a six-month period between 2015 and 2016, and could break the record for the highest number of infections in the continental United States since the 1940s, reported the local affiliate of National Public Radio (NPR).
The disease has prompted declarations of emergency in three Florida counties—Pinellas, Pasco, and Hillsborough—with the latter becoming the outbreak’s epicenter, accounting for 223 of the local cases.
Tampa, a city in Hillsborough County, reported the state’s first dengue death of the year a month ago, following the passing of an 80-year-old woman who had been bitten by a mosquito.
This state-level dengue outbreak has drawn national attention because, while the disease is common in U.S. territories such as Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, infections are “limited” in continental states like Florida, Texas, Arizona, and California, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Global cases rose to 14.6 million in 2024, up from 505,430 in 2000, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), which warns that nearly half the world’s population is now at risk of contracting the virus.
Furthermore, last month the WHO urged countries affected by the El Niño phenomenon—which involves warmer-than-usual waters in the Pacific—to step up disease surveillance, as the conditions could facilitate the transmission of mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue, malaria, and Zika, even in areas previously unaffected.
Dengue, which is transmitted by the bite of the Aedes aegypti mosquito and is not contagious from person to person, causes fever as well as intense muscle and joint pain—symptoms that can appear up to 14 days after the bite.
