A dangerous viral disease spread by mosquitoes is making inroads into the United States—and it’s now claimed the life of a Florida woman.
Officials with the Florida Department of Health confirmed the dengue-related death of a Hillsborough County resident, the Tampa Bay Times reported over the weekend. The resident, identified by her family as 80-year-old Gay Small, died earlier this month. Her death is the first recorded in the state from dengue in nearly a century and comes amidst a surge of cases reported in Florida this year.
According to her family, Small first started to feel ill in late August.
She had developed a tremor, slurred speech, and broken blood vessels around her ankles. Her daughter, Anna Small, rushed her to urgent care, where a doctor then sent her to the hospital. By Sunday, August 30, Small informed her daughter that she had been diagnosed with dengue fever.
Unfortunately, Small’s health only worsened from there. She developed jaundice, multiple organ failure, and septic shock before passing away on September 4th, which was her 80th birthday. Her death certificate lists dengue infection as a contributing cause, according to her family.
Kristi Miley, a medical entomologist with the University of South Florida’s College of Public Health, told the Tampa Bay Times that Small’s death is the first documented in the state in roughly a century.
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Many people who catch dengue will have no symptoms, but about a quarter will experience flu-like illness, while one in 20 can develop severe, life-threatening complications like internal bleeding and shock. There are at least four major types of the dengue virus, however, and surviving an infection from one type doesn’t provide immunity against the others. In fact, people who become infected more than once are at higher risk of severe dengue the second time.
Such a scenario may have helped cause Small’s death, her family says. They believe she likely contracted an undiagnosed case of dengue many years earlier while traveling abroad. This time around, though, she probably caught her infection from local mosquitoes, since she hadn’t traveled recently (typically, it takes a week after exposure to feel sick).
Florida has been hit hard by dengue in 2026.
According to the latest surveillance data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there have been at least 332 reported cases in Florida this year, by far the most of any state. The latest data from the Florida Department of Health shows that at least 152 cases have been locally acquired. The state has seen similar surges in recent years, including from an emerging type of dengue not previously often seen in the Americas.
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Florida health officials have advised the public to take added precautions against mosquitoes this summer, including the use of EPA-registered repellents, wearing long and loose-fitting clothing when outdoors if possible, and clearing homes of any standing water.
Dengue is rarely fatal, with only about 9,000 deaths out of 14 million cases recorded worldwide in 2024. But the range and distribution of this viral disease have expanded over time. The World Health Organization now estimates that about half of the world’s population is now at risk for dengue. One important factor for this increased spread is climate change, the WHO notes.
So as rare as this tragic death may have been, the overall threat of dengue to the U.S. is only likely to keep growing.
Source: Gizmodo