{"id":368142,"date":"2026-08-11T06:22:32","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T06:22:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/368142\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T06:22:32","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T06:22:32","slug":"lee-county-on-alert-as-dengue-season-ramps-up-in-florida-lee-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/368142\/","title":{"rendered":"Lee County on alert as dengue season ramps up in Florida | Lee County"},"content":{"rendered":"

LEE COUNTY, Fla. (WINK)\u2014Public health officials are testing mosquitoes in Lee County as the state continues to report new cases of dengue virus.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Most people who get the virus don’t develop symptoms, according to the World Health Organization. However, severe cases can be deadly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Florida Department of Health reported 55 dengue cases across the state as of Aug. 1. The vast majority of those cases came from travel, the health department said.<\/p>\n

However, four cases were recorded locally. That means they came from mosquitoes in Florida, which health researchers said is rare. Hillsborough County reported two locally transmitted cases last week.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Florida has dengue cases almost every year, said Professor Michael Teng, an infectious disease researcher at the University of South Florida. It’s usually imported by people who travel overseas.<\/p>\n

“There\u00a0are\u00a0a\u00a0lot\u00a0of\u00a0dengue\u00a0virus\u00a0endemic\u00a0regions\u00a0in\u00a0the\u00a0Caribbean and South\u00a0America,\u00a0so\u00a0it’s\u00a0not\u00a0uncommon\u00a0to\u00a0see\u00a0in\u00a0Florida,” Teng said. “I\u00a0think\u00a0when\u00a0we\u00a0start\u00a0seeing\u00a0local\u00a0transmission\u00a0of\u00a0the\u00a0virus,\u00a0then\u00a0we\u00a0start\u00a0to\u00a0worry\u00a0a\u00a0little\u00a0bit\u00a0because\u00a0that’s\u00a0the\u00a0way\u00a0we\u00a0can\u00a0get\u00a0an\u00a0outbreak\u00a0of\u00a0the\u00a0virus.”<\/p>\n

Researchers are keeping an eye on the localized cases, Teng said, but they aren’t \u00a0a concern just yet. The only major Florida outbreak<\/a> was between 2009 and 2010 on Key West, when 28 cases were reported.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That doesn’t stop local officials from keeping an eye out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We literally are always on alert,” said Jenifer McBride, communications director for the Lee County Mosquito Control District.<\/p>\n

When there is a confirmed or suspected case of dengue, the district will use specialized trucks to spray the neighborhood, McBride said. Lee County reported two cases of dengue so far this year, according to the Florida Department of Health. Both came from international travel.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The district also said it proactively tests mosquitoes in a lab at its Buckingham headquarters. Mosquitoes are trapped and brought back to the lab for immediate results. The lab will grind up mosquitoes and run them through a test to see if they’re carrying specific diseases.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The district will often test Aedes aegypti mosquitoes – known as the backyard mosquito. That species can transmit other diseases, Teng said, including the\u00a0chikungunya\u00a0and\u00a0Zika\u00a0virus.<\/p>\n

“We rely on our community members really to make sure that they’re dumping out the standing water in their\u00a0backyard,” McBride said. “That helps us tremendously.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LEE COUNTY, Fla. (WINK)\u2014Public health officials are testing mosquitoes in Lee County as the state continues to report…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":368143,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210,149137,28,356,103440,68802,149138,807],"class_list":["post-368142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-dengue-fever","tag-florida","tag-lee-county","tag-mosquito","tag-mosquito-control","tag-mosquito-borne-disease","tag-south-florida"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=368142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/368143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}