{"id":79415,"date":"2026-09-11T21:17:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T01:17:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=79415"},"modified":"2026-09-11T21:17:24","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T01:17:24","slug":"florida-dengue-fever-outbreak-health-alerts-issued-over-case-surge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/09\/11\/florida-dengue-fever-outbreak-health-alerts-issued-over-case-surge\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Dengue Fever Outbreak: Health Alerts Issued Over Case Surge"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Florida health authorities have issued public health alerts and advisories following a sudden surge in both travel-associated and locally acquired dengue fever cases.<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key Details on the Outbreak<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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  • Locally Acquired Surge:<\/strong> While the vast majority of U.S. dengue cases are historically linked to international travel, Florida health officials confirmed a rapid spike in locally transmitted cases.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Affected Counties:<\/strong> Concentration of local transmission has centered heavily around the Tampa Bay and South Florida regions, including Hillsborough, Pinellas, Miami-Dade, and Palm Beach counties<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Local Alerts:<\/strong> Counties experiencing active transmission\u2014such as Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Miami-Dade\u2014have placed residents under mosquito-borne illness alerts<\/strong>, prompting county mosquito control agencies to scale up spraying, barrier treatments, and larvicide applications.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    What to Know About Dengue Fever<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Dengue is a viral infection transmitted to humans through the bite of infected mosquitoes\u2014primarily Aedes aegypti<\/em> and Aedes albopictus<\/em>.<\/sup> It is not contagious<\/strong> directly between humans.<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Category<\/strong><\/td>Key Information<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/thead>
    Common Symptoms<\/strong><\/td>High fever, severe headache, pain behind the eyes, joint\/muscle pain (“breakbone fever”), nausea, and skin rash.<\/td><\/tr>
    Symptom Onset<\/strong><\/td>Typically begins 4 to 10 days after an infected mosquito bite and lasts 2 to 7 days.<\/td><\/tr>
    Treatment<\/strong><\/td>There is no specific antiviral treatment; medical care focuses on symptom management and hydration.<\/td><\/tr>
    Risk of Severity<\/strong><\/td>Individuals infected with dengue a second time face a significantly higher risk of developing severe dengue (dengue hemorrhagic fever).<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Prevention Measures (“Drain and Cover”)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Health officials urge Florida residents and visitors to follow standard prevention guidelines to minimize mosquito breeding and bites:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n
    • Drain Standing Water:<\/strong> Frequently empty flowerpots, gutters, buckets, pool covers, pet dishes, and birdbaths. Mosquitoes can breed in as little as a bottle cap of stagnant water.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Cover Skin:<\/strong> Wear loose-fitting, long-sleeved shirts and pants when outdoors, especially during peak mosquito activity hours (dawn and dusk).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Apply Repellent:<\/strong> Use EPA-registered insect repellents containing DEET, Picaridin, IR3535, or Oil of Lemon Eucalyptus.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Protect the Home:<\/strong> Ensure window and door screens are intact and repaired to prevent mosquitoes from entering living spaces.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Florida health authorities have issued public health alerts and advisories following a sudden surge in both travel-associated and locally acquired dengue fever cases. Key Details on the Outbreak What to… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79416,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDlcL1NjcmVlbnNob3QtNi53ZWJwP2ZpdD0yNzQlMkMxMzgmc3NsPTEiLCJ0eHQiOiJGbG9yaWRhIERlbmd1ZSBGZXZlciBPdXRicmVhazogSGVhbHRoIEFsZXJ0cyBJc3N1ZWQgT3ZlciBDYXNlIFN1cmdlIiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJkb2lzIiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.jY7v6H2aH3w2AMNKiXUjj5vlVCN26mr2ehQlcooiCKwMQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzA5XC9TY3JlZW5zaG90LTYud2VicCIsInR4dCI6IkZsb3JpZGEgRGVuZ3VlIEZldmVyIE91dGJyZWFrOiBIZWFsdGggQWxlcnRzIElzc3VlZCBPdmVyIENhc2UgU3VyZ2UiLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImRvaXMiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.x9cGX-6BUMJIBYUvmsQOoIypLIju1NPiRuhYbrwcqXAMQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[15332,17061,15335,15333,15336,17073,17076],"class_list":["post-79415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-dengue-fever","tag-florida-health-advisory","tag-infectious-disease","tag-mosquito-prevention","tag-mosquito-borne-illness","tag-public-health-alert","tag-tampa-bay"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79415"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79415\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79418,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79415\/revisions\/79418"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}