Florida health officials have confirmed the state’s first dengue fever death of 2026, and it happened in Hillsborough County. Gay Small, a Tampa resident who lived near Bayshore Boulevard, died on Sept. 4 — her 80th birthday — after complications from dengue that included septic shock and multi-organ failure, according to the Florida Department of Health, which confirmed the death Friday after completing its investigation. Health officials did not release additional details.
Small’s daughter, Anna Small, told Tampa’s WFLA Channel 8 that her mother’s death felt senseless given how carefully she took care of herself.
“Cheated, just, you know, it’s so unfair because she was in good health, and she worked hard to stay healthy, and she walked, and she ate right and you know, all the things that you’re supposed to do,” Anna Small said.
“And you know, this virus just kind of comes out of nowhere. She met the wrong mosquito, and that’s it,” she added.
The family believes Gay Small first contracted dengue years earlier while traveling abroad without realizing it at the time. That matters medically, since people who have had dengue once face a much higher risk of severe symptoms if infected again. WFLA reported that while hospitalized, Small grew weak, her hands turned red, and her voice carried a noticeable tremble. By the middle of the week, she was moved into the ICU.
Adding a painful layer to the family’s loss: Small’s late husband, Bob Small, spent his career working on dengue vaccines, according to the couple’s daughter.
The Tampa Bay Times, citing University of South Florida public-health instructor Kristi Miley, reported that this is the first dengue death recorded in the Tampa Bay area in nearly a century.
An unprecedented local outbreak
Dengue is a mosquito-borne virus that typically causes fever, severe body aches, nausea and rash, and in rare cases can turn life-threatening, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It’s most common in tropical regions such as Southeast Asia, the Western Pacific, Latin America and Africa, but locally acquired cases — meaning people caught the virus without traveling — have shown up in Florida, California and Texas.
Since July, Florida has been in the middle of what the Tampa Bay Times described as an unprecedented outbreak of locally acquired dengue cases, with Hillsborough County at the center of it. Both Hillsborough and Pinellas counties are currently under mosquito-borne illness alerts issued by the Florida Department of Health.
Pinellas County Mosquito Control Director Alissa Berro told Fox 13 that the virus doesn’t respect boundaries.
“Dengue does not stop at county lines,” Berro said. “The mosquitoes that transmit the virus generally stay within a relatively small area, but people travel throughout the Tampa Bay area every day. When someone infected with dengue enters a new area, a local mosquito can bite that person and later spread the virus to others. As cases rise across the region, so does the potential for additional local transmission.”
What’s being done
Hillsborough County Mosquito Management Services has ramped up aerial and ground insecticide treatments in areas showing dengue activity and is inspecting private properties for potential mosquito breeding sites, according to local reports. That effort appears to be paying off: the Tampa Bay Times reported that of the last 1,500 mosquitoes sent for testing, all came back negative for dengue.
The Florida Mosquito Control Association is urging residents to empty or cover standing water around their homes, since the mosquito species that spreads dengue breeds in small containers — buckets, planters, plant saucers, tires, discarded toys and anything else that collects even a little water. The association also recommends following the “three Ds” of mosquito prevention.
Know the warning signs
Many people infected with dengue never show symptoms, and most who do get sick recover within one to two weeks, according to the Mayo Clinic. But in some cases the illness progresses to severe dengue, which can be life-threatening. Warning signs can appear quickly, often within a day or two after a fever breaks, and include severe stomach pain, repeated vomiting, unusual bleeding or bruising, difficulty breathing, extreme tiredness and restlessness or irritability. Anyone experiencing these symptoms should seek medical care right away.
