Florida health officials have tallied more than 250 locally acquired dengue cases this year, mostly in Hillsborough County. Available records suggest it is the largest continental US yearly total in decades.
Florida's current dengue outbreak appears to be the largest in several decades in the continental United States, the Associated Press reported in copy published by PBS. State health officials said this week that more than 250 locally acquired cases have been tallied so far in 2026.
The vast majority were in Hillsborough County, which includes Tampa. The Independent, citing state figures as of late September, put the locally acquired total at 252 and said Florida had also recorded 245 travel-associated cases, with at least 13 Hillsborough cases in people who had recently travelled.
Federal officials say national dengue data are limited. Available state and journal records suggest no continental state has reported a larger calendar-year total since at least the 1940s, AP said. Florida's previous high was just under 200 locally spread cases in 2023.
Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas counties have declared local emergencies. Workers in the Tampa area are spraying to cut mosquito populations. The outbreak first drew notice in July. The World Health Organization has reported more than 2.2 million infections and nearly 1,200 deaths worldwide this year, AP said.
Puerto Rico routinely records far higher dengue numbers than any of the 50 states. Officials are treating the Florida event as local transmission on the mainland, not as an imported-only cluster.