Tampa woman dies from dengue fever as Florida fights record outbreak

Florida faces its largest locally acquired dengue fever outbreak in decades, recording 252 local cases through late September 2026. Hillsborough County accounts for 223 cases, including the fatality of an 80-year-old Tampa woman on September 4. Driven primarily by the DENV-2 strain imported via Caribbean travel, counties including Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Pasco have declared local emergencies, deploying aerial larvicide spraying and property inspections as warming climate trends threaten further disease expansion.

Fatal dengue infection in Tampa

• ▪Gay Small had previously traveled to Asia and South America with her husband, which her daughter Anna Small suggested may have caused a prior undetected dengue infection.
• ▪Florida health officials confirmed an 80-year-old Tampa woman bitten by a mosquito near her Bayshore Boulevard home died from dengue fever on September 4, 2026, Hillsborough County's first confirmed dengue-related fatality.

Florida dengue outbreak statistics

• ▪Florida's 252 locally acquired dengue fever cases through late September 2026 marked the largest outbreak in the continental United States in decades, a sharp increase compared with 40 cases by the same week in 2025 and 37 in 2024.
• ▪Total dengue cases in Florida, combining travel-associated and locally acquired infections, reached 485 according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention figures as of October 2026.

County-level dengue transmission in Florida

• ▪Broward County confirmed a human case of locally acquired dengue fever on October 5, 2026, becoming the eighth Florida county to report local transmission in 2026.
• ▪Hillsborough County accounted for 223 of Florida's 252 locally acquired dengue fever cases through late September 2026, after having recorded only two local cases in the preceding decade.

DENV-2 serotype and travel cases

• ▪Travel-associated dengue infections imported from Cuba to Florida rose to 201 cases in 2026, predominantly carrying the DENV-2 serotype amid fuel shortages that restricted mosquito spraying in Cuba.
• ▪DENV-2 accounted for 230 of the 232 typed locally acquired dengue cases in Florida during the 2026 outbreak.

Local emergency orders and mosquito control

• ▪Emergency declarations in Pinellas County authorized mosquito control personnel to enter private property during daylight hours without prior notice to remove standing water and mosquito breeding sites.
• ▪Hillsborough County established mutual-aid agreements with Manatee, Pasco, and Lee counties for helicopters, pilots, and mosquito spraying equipment to combat dengue transmission in 2026.
• ▪Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Pasco counties declared local states of emergency under Florida Chapter 252 in September 2026 to enhance mosquito control efforts, extending the orders to October 8, 2026.

Climate change and global dengue spread

• ▪World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated in June 2026 that urbanization, climate change, and population mobility are increasing the frequency, scale, and geographic reach of dengue outbreaks.
• ▪A 2022 United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report indicated that warmer temperatures could expand dengue transmission ranges into North America, Asia, Europe, and sub-Saharan Africa, placing 2.25 billion additional people at risk.