{"id":404799,"date":"2026-09-19T18:44:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T18:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/404799\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T18:44:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T18:44:08","slug":"florida-records-first-dengue-fever-death-of-2026-amid-surge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/404799\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida records first dengue fever death of 2026 amid surge"},"content":{"rendered":"

TAMPA, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 Florida is seeing one of its worst dengue fever outbreaks in decades \u2014 and the surge has now claimed a life.<\/p>\n

The Florida Department of Health confirmed the death Friday, without providing additional details. The Tampa Bay Times<\/a> reported the victim was an elderly Tampa woman who died Sept. 4.<\/p>\n

More than 130 locally acquired cases have been reported in Hillsborough County<\/a> this year, far above the handful typically seen.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is wildly unusual for us,\u201d county spokesperson Chris Wilkerson<\/a> told The Associated Press<\/a>.<\/p>\n

State health officials have reported 152 locally acquired dengue cases statewide this year, already the second-highest total on record. Nearly 200 cases were reported in 2023.<\/p>\n

See also: Wastewater spill near Boca Raton Resort prompts no-swim advisory<\/a><\/p>\n

Dengue is spread by mosquitoes and can cause fever, headaches and flu-like symptoms. Severe cases can lead to bleeding, shock and death.<\/p>\n

Hillsborough County mosquito crews are spraying day and night and checking properties for standing water where mosquitoes can breed.<\/p>\n

Recent mosquito testing has not detected the virus, suggesting the risk of new infections may be declining, officials said.<\/p>\n

Still, University of Florida associate professor Michael von Fricken<\/a> told The Associated Press that dengue could become increasingly common in Florida as virus-carrying mosquitoes remain widespread.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do think it\u2019s going to be somewhat the new normal,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 Florida is seeing one of its worst dengue fever outbreaks in decades \u2014 and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404800,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-404799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404799","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=404799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}