“The cat is out of the bag and it’s only going to keep spreading.”
Dengue is spreading in Florida, and the mosquitoes that carry it now live as far north as Virginia.
As a result, the CDC has activated a Level 3 emergency response for dengue in Florida, its eighth emergency activation of 2026.
Florida has logged 425 locally acquired dengue cases this year, meaning people caught the virus from mosquitoes in Florida rather than while traveling, as of the state’s weekly report through Oct. 17. Most are around Tampa: Hillsborough County has 346 and neighboring Pinellas has 51, with cases now in 11 counties.
That is more than double Florida’s previous record of just under 200 local cases in 2023, and MedPage Today reports it is the largest outbreak in the continental US since 1935. CDC experts say most cases involve DENV-2, one of dengue’s four types, and 47% of reported patients needed hospital care. One death, an elderly Tampa woman, was reported in September.
Dengue, sometimes called breakbone fever, spreads through the bite of Aedes mosquitoes. Most infections cause no symptoms, so experts say the official count is only the tip of the iceberg.
A second infection with a different type raises the risk of severe dengue, which can cause internal bleeding and shock. There is no dengue vaccine licensed for general use in the US, so the best protection is repellent, long sleeves and getting rid of standing water around your home. Hillsborough and Pinellas counties have extended their states of emergency through Oct. 29.
“The cat is out of the bag and it’s only going to keep spreading,” said dengue expert Adam Waickman of SUNY Upstate Medical University.
source: Fiore, K. (2026, October 22). CDC issues emergency response for Florida dengue outbreak. MedPage Today.