Hillsborough County Declares Dengue Emergency After 134 Cases

Hillsborough County, Florida declared a local state of emergency on 24 September 2026 after confirming 134 dengue fever cases.

Pasco County and Pinellas County also declared local emergencies linked to dengue reports. The three counties are in the Tampa Bay area. That is three counties acting in September 2026, according to The Guardian.

Hillsborough's order took effect on September 24, 2026. Tampa is the county seat. The declaration was set for one week at first and could be extended by officials. The county's Emergency Orders page lists a September 24, 2026 entry titled "Local Emergency in Response to Dengue Fever a Mosquito-Borne Illness." Its Newsroom published "Dengue Fever Prompts Hillsborough County to Declare State of Local Emergency" on September 24, 2026 at 11:56:31 AM.

The Florida Department of Health reported 38 locally contracted cases and 26 international travel-linked cases in the six-day period starting 13 September 2026. Think of them as two separate buckets: infections caught in Florida, and infections caught outside Florida. For 2026 to date, the department reported 190 locally acquired cases and 212 travel-related cases across Florida. The CDC counted 392 dengue cases overall in Florida for 2026 as of 28 September 2026.

Dengue spreads through the bite of Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes. Both species are present in Florida.

A Florida Department of Health arbovirus surveillance report dated 12 September recorded 152 locally acquired dengue cases in Florida in 2026, including 7 in Miami-Dade County and 2 in Pasco County. By the time Hillsborough acted, it had the highest county count in the state. The CDC's 2026 dengue data table, current to 23 September, separately listed 916 cases in Puerto Rico.

The broader context here is concentration against wider spread. The statewide totals mix travel-associated and locally acquired infections, two groups with different meanings. Travel-associated cases reflect exposure outside Florida. Locally acquired cases mean spread by mosquitoes inside the state. Hillsborough accounts for a large share of the state's locally acquired total. The one-week starting period puts the extension decision in focus. Whether Pasco and Pinellas keep the same timeline or set separate plans for mosquito control and tracking patients will shape the next phase of the response.