Florida counts 368 locally acquired dengue cases this year as Citrus and Brevard confirm new ones

The Florida Department of Health in Citrus County said Oct. 19, 2026 that it had confirmed two cases of locally acquired dengue and issued a mosquito-borne illness alert. The county health office said it and Citrus County Mosquito Control were stepping up truck fogging, spreading larvicide by air and inspecting on the ground for breeding sites.¹ Three days earlier, the department’s Brevard County office updated its mosquito-borne illness advisory after confirming one locally acquired case there.²

Neither county is among those with local cases in the state’s newest weekly arbovirus surveillance report, which covers Oct. 4-10.³

368 local cases through Oct. 10

That report counts 368 locally acquired dengue cases in Florida in 2026, 72 of them reported during the week. A week earlier the count stood at 296.³⁴ The state also counts 20 mosquito pools that tested positive this year. By month of illness onset, 21 cases began in July, 159 in August and 188 in September. One case was in someone who does not live in Florida.³

The department maps cases by the county where the person was exposed, not where they live. Its county counts as of Oct. 10:³

• Hillsborough: 310
• Pinellas: 37
• Miami-Dade: 9
• Orange: 5
• Pasco: 4
• Broward, Palm Beach and Polk: 1 each

Of the 368 cases, lab testing identified 341 as type 2 dengue and two as type 3; 25 were not typed. The 20 positive mosquito pools, all carrying type 2 virus in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, were collected in Hillsborough (19) and Pasco (1).³

Travel-associated cases

Separately, the report lists 288 dengue cases this year in people who had traveled to places where the virus is common, 26 of them reported during the week. Miami-Dade accounted for 182 of those. Cuba was the reported place of exposure for 240.³

Advisories and alerts

As of Oct. 10, the department listed 10 counties under a mosquito-borne illness advisory: Bay, Brevard, Broward, Holmes, Leon, Manatee, Martin, Palm Beach, Polk and Walton. Seven were under an alert: Alachua, Duval, Hillsborough, Miami-Dade, Orange, Pasco and Pinellas.³ Bay was not on the Oct. 3 list.⁴

In Hillsborough, the county announced Oct. 15 that County Administrator Bonnie Wise had signed an order extending its state of local emergency over dengue to Oct. 22. The county said its mosquito surveillance was finding dengue virus in mosquitoes in many neighborhoods and that crews were adding treatments from the air and on the ground.⁵

ABC News reported Sept. 22 that a department spokesperson acknowledged “the first dengue fever-related death in Hillsborough County” and said further details were confidential.⁶ The weekly report does not count deaths.³

What the department advises

In its Oct. 19 notice, the Citrus County health office urged residents to wear loose, long-sleeved shirts and long pants, use insect repellents registered with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, repair window and door screens, and drain standing water from containers. It said dengue spreads through the bite of an infected Aedes aegypti mosquito, does not pass from person to person, and that anyone with symptoms should call a health care provider.¹

What the records do not show

• The weekly report does not compare this year’s count with earlier years, and it gives no hospitalization or death figures.
• The Brevard and Citrus notices give no onset dates or locations within those counties, and do not say when the cases will appear in the state’s weekly count.²¹
• A week 41 report (Oct. 11-17) had not been posted at the address the department used for earlier weeks when SignalData checked on Oct. 20.