There’s something rotten in the state of Florida, and it’s sporting six legs and a bloodsucking proboscis as the state is currently beset by dengue-spreading mosquitoes.
Last week, three Florida counties declared a state of emergency in an attempt to corral what health officials have called “wildly unusual” outbreaks of dengue in the area. Nearly 200 cases of locally acquired dengue have been documented in the state so far this year, which now threatens to surpass the previous record set in 2023. At least one person has also died of the viral disease.
Dengue now poses “an immediate and widespread threat to the public health, safety, and welfare of the residents and visitors of Hillsborough County,” read) one letter from Hillsborough County officials.
A dengue emergency
Dengue is typically spread by the mosquito species Aedes aegypti and less commonly by the related species Aedes albopictus, both of which are common throughout the southern and eastern parts of the United States. Though historically most dengue cases in the U.S. have been travel related, meaning the infection was caught elsewhere, some states like Florida have started to see an uptick in outbreaks spread by local populations of Aedes mosquitoes…