Florida records its first dengue death of 2026

Florida recorded its first confirmed dengue fever death of 2026 in early September, according to the state Department of Health. Gay Small of Hillsborough County died on 4 September, her 80th birthday, from complications of a dengue infection including septic shock and multi-organ failure, after being bitten by a mosquito near her home on Bayshore Boulevard, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

Her family told Tampa station WFLA that she had been in good health and had grown weak in hospital, with reddened hands and tremors, before going into intensive care by the middle of the week. "She met the wrong mosquito, and that's it," her daughter Anna Small said. The family believe she had contracted dengue years earlier while travelling abroad without knowing it; a previous infection makes severe illness considerably more likely on a second. Her late husband had spent his career working on dengue vaccines.