Sarasota County says it has recorded no locally acquired dengue cases in 2026, even though Jerri Goodlin, a 63-year-old North Port hospice nurse, was hospitalized for five days in September with dengue fever. Goodlin believes she was infected while mowing a neighbor’s lawn, but the information made public does not establish where she was exposed.
Goodlin’s case and the questions around its classification were first reported by Suncoast Searchlight. In an account to WUSF, Goodlin said mosquitoes swarmed her while she mowed a neighbor’s lawn. About four days later, she woke with chills, diarrhea and severe bone pain. She also had a rash and a fever of 102.2 degrees; a physician suspected dengue fever or chikungunya.
Goodlin had attended a wedding in Hillsborough County the week before she became ill. She told WUSF she did not recall mosquito bites or symptoms afterward and associates her illness with the lawn-mowing episode in North Port. Both of Florida’s primary dengue-carrying mosquito species, Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus, are present there, according to the report.
A Hospital Stay That Turned Dire
WUSF reported that Goodlin developed acute colitis during her five-day hospitalization, lost a quarter of her blood volume and dropped 17 pounds in four days, later regaining two…