Orange County, Florida, Elevates Mosquito-Borne Illness Alert Following Third Dengue Case
Orange County, Florida, has escalated its mosquito-borne illness status from an advisory to an alert, the first such upgrade since 2011, after health officials confirmed a third locally acquired case of dengue. The Florida Department of Health made the change after two additional cases were identified within a single household in Apopka, following an earlier case reported in Pine Hills. Steve Harrison, manager of Orange County Mosquito Control, explained that the presence of multiple local cases in different areas triggered the alert. Dengue is transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which typically remains within a few blocks of its hatching site. In response, mosquito control crews are conducting door-to-door treatments in Pine Hills and Apopka to eliminate standing water and breeding sites. The county has also implemented new laboratory equipment utilizing PCR detection to rapidly test mosquitoes for viruses, providing results within a single day, a significant improvement over previous methods that ...
