The first case of dengue fever in over 50 years was reported in Miam-Dade County on Thursday. The victim contracted the disease locally.
The Palm Beach Post reported:
The first locally acquired case of dengue fever in Miami-Dade County in more than 50 years was confirmed Thursday by health officials. They warned people to take precautions against the mosquitoes that carry it.
“This is a big deal,” said Lillian Rivera, administrator of the Miami-Dade Health Department.
“We have not had a locally acquired case of dengue fever since the 1950s,” said Dr. Fermin Leguen, the department’s chief epidemiologist.
The victim, described only as a man who had not traveled outside Miami-Dade County for more than two weeks, was briefly hospitalized but has fully recovered, Rivera said. His case was confirmed by laboratory tests.
Health officials said they don’t know where the man acquired the disease. It was a different strain from the one that has caused 57 locally acquired cases in Key West and one in Broward County.
In an unusual Veterans Day press conference, Miami-Dade health officials also reminded the public that the Florida-wide alert issued in July about Eastern Equine Encephalitis has not been lifted, with four non-fatal human cases reported then in Hillsborough, Wakulla and Leon counties.
Leguen also repeated the warning to local doctors and hospitals to be on the lookout for cholera cases that might be spread by people returning from Haiti, where a cholera epidemic has killed more than 600 people.