{"id":80634,"date":"2026-09-17T23:24:38","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T03:24:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=80634"},"modified":"2026-09-17T23:24:44","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T03:24:44","slug":"florida-dengue-cases-top-150-tampa-bay-hardest-hit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/09\/17\/florida-dengue-cases-top-150-tampa-bay-hardest-hit\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Dengue Cases Top 150: Tampa Bay Hardest Hit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Florida has reported 152 locally acquired cases of dengue fever so far in 2026<\/strong>, marking a sharp late-summer surge according to data released by the Florida Department of Health (DOH).<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Geographic Breakdown<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The overwhelming majority of local infections are concentrated in the Tampa Bay region<\/strong>:<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  • Hillsborough County:<\/strong> 134 cases<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Pinellas County:<\/strong> 7 cases<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Pasco County:<\/strong> 2 cases<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Other Counties:<\/strong> Remaining cases distributed across South and Central Florida counties.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    (Note: The state has also logged 186 international travel-associated dengue cases so far this year, which are tracked separately from local transmission.)<\/em><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Timeline & Alerts<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n
    • Surge Trajectory:<\/strong> Local transmission spiked sharply over late summer, growing from just 21 local cases in July to 124 in August, pushing the total past 150 by mid-September.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Active Alerts:<\/strong> Duval, Hillsborough, Miami-Dade, and Pinellas counties are currently under a mosquito-borne illness alert<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Active Advisories:<\/strong> Alachua, Brevard, Leon, Orange, Palm Beach, Pasco, and Walton counties remain under a mosquito-borne illness advisory.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

      Prevention & Symptoms<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Dengue is transmitted by infected Aedes<\/em> mosquitoes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        \n
      • Symptoms:<\/strong> Include sudden high fever, severe muscle\/joint pain (“breakbone fever”), headache, eye pain, and sometimes a skin rash.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • Treatment:<\/strong> There is no specific antiviral treatment; medical guidance focuses on hydration, rest, and taking acetaminophen for fever and pain (avoiding NSAIDs like ibuprofen\/aspirin, which increase bleeding risk).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • Control Steps:<\/strong> Health authorities strongly urge residents to drain standing water<\/strong> around yards (flowerpots, buckets, birdbaths) to disrupt breeding cycles, wear protective long clothing, and use EPA-registered insect repellents containing DEET, Picaridin, or Oil of Lemon Eucalyptus.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        Florida has reported 152 locally acquired cases of dengue fever so far in 2026, marking a sharp late-summer surge according to data released by the Florida Department of Health (DOH).… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80635,"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":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","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":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDlcL3VubmFtZWQtOC53ZWJwP2ZpdD0xMDI0JTJDNTc2JnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiRmxvcmlkYSBEZW5ndWUgQ2FzZXMgVG9wIDE1MDogVGFtcGEgQmF5IEhhcmRlc3QgSGl0IiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJkb2lzIiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.0I8f_fFqo8-bg-uhcXYPlgOEu0lyLwkGZY_4w6EXT4wMQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDlcL3VubmFtZWQtOC53ZWJwP2ZpdD0xMDI0JTJDNTc2JnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiRmxvcmlkYSBEZW5ndWUgQ2FzZXMgVG9wIDE1MDogVGFtcGEgQmF5IEhhcmRlc3QgSGl0IiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJkb2lzIiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.0I8f_fFqo8-bg-uhcXYPlgOEu0lyLwkGZY_4w6EXT4wMQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[14],"tags":[17288,17287,17284,17192,17286,17063,17285],"class_list":["post-80634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-dengue-prevention","tag-dengue-symptoms","tag-florida-dengue-fever","tag-florida-department-of-health","tag-hillsborough-county-dengue","tag-mosquito-borne-illness-florida","tag-tampa-bay-dengue-outbreak"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80634","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=80634"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80637,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80634\/revisions\/80637"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}