Another seven days. That's how long Hillsborough County's dengue emergency has just been stretched, and it's the answer to the deadline we flagged on Wednesday. Welcome to Dengue Fever Watch. It's Friday, October 30th. On the rundown: the Hillsborough extension, spray planes over Apopka and Pine Hills this evening, and a federal case count for Florida that needs some careful reading. If today's show was useful, follow us wherever you're listening — the next one will be waiting.
Hillsborough County, in a release Thursday:
The state of local emergency now extends to Nov. 5, as the County works to control the mosquito population and protect residents from dengue fever - a mosquito-borne disease.
So the order that was set to lapse on Thursday is still in place. Who signed this one? County Administrator Bonnie Wise, by executive order on Thursday, October 29th. Under state law and the county's ordinance, a local emergency only lasts seven days unless it's extended, which is why these keep coming back. The county says the declaration lets emergency managers act quickly and opens a path to reimbursement for some costs. Did the county give a reason beyond keeping its options open? It points to its own mosquito surveillance. Many neighborhoods are showing dengue virus activity in the mosquito population, and crews are increasing treatments by air and by ground. And Pinellas? Its order ran out the same day. One outlet, Florida Times, reports that both Pinellas and Hillsborough extended their declarations. That report doesn't give Pinellas a new end date, and there's no new order from Pinellas County itself in today's reporting. So treat Pinellas as reported, not confirmed by the county. Anything residents should actually do this weekend? Hillsborough is asking people countywide to find and drain standing water after the recent heavy rain. And one deadline next door: Pasco County's waiver on residential tire disposal fees runs through November 1st. According to a Dade City community site, Saturday, October 31st is the last day to use it at the East Pasco Transfer Station, up to four tires per resident.
The Apopka Voice, from staff reports and the City of Apopka, on Thursday:
Orange County Mosquito Control plans to conduct aerial mosquito spraying over parts of Apopka and Pine Hills on Friday, October 30, beginning around 7 pm, weather permitting.
That's tonight. Which streets, exactly? That's the gap. The Apopka Voice says the public notice, posted Thursday, doesn't name specific neighborhood boundaries and doesn't give an expected finish time. It does warn that aircraft will fly low and may turn over nearby homes. Where do people check for changes? The notice points residents to the Orange County Mosquito Control arbovirus monitoring page for updates, including any weather delays, and to the Orange County health department's mosquito-borne illness alert update. For context, where does Orange stand on local cases? The latest state weekly report we've cited, covering cases through October 17th, listed eight locally acquired cases in Orange. Florida Times reports two more Orange local cases this week, but it doesn't say who confirmed them or when, so we're not adding them to that figure. Orange has already been spraying from the air, and on October 19th we covered mosquito control plans for this same Apopka and Pine Hills area. Tonight's flights are the newest round.
HealthDay News, published Thursday by Infectious Disease Advisor:
As of Oct. 22, Florida had reported 721 dengue cases this year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). That count includes people who caught the virus in the state and those infected while traveling.
721 sounds a lot bigger than the 425 we keep quoting. Different measure, so don't set them side by side. The 425 is the state's count of confirmed, locally acquired cases through October 17th. The 721 is CDC's tally as of October 22nd, and it folds in travel-associated cases too. HealthDay, citing The Washington Post, says it's nearly double the 392 cases the state had logged in September. That's the CDC figure we reported back on September 25th, the same combined kind of count. Anything in there about how sick people are getting? One national figure. CDC data show about 43 percent of people who caught dengue locally anywhere in the U.S. this year were hospitalized. And the weather question we keep asking? Ira Longini, a University of Florida professor who studies how infectious diseases spread, told the Post that cooler, drier weather could slow it, but any break may not last. If it warms up and rains more, he said, it'll come back. For symptoms, the CDC urges anyone who lives in or has recently visited a dengue-risk area and gets sick to see a healthcare provider. It says warning signs of severe dengue, like belly pain or bleeding from the nose or gums, usually show up a day or two after a fever breaks, and call for a clinic or emergency room right away.
If outbreak briefings like this are useful to you, Lantern also makes Ebola Watch. It's out every weekday on the Ebola outbreaks in the DRC and Uganda: case counts, border tracing, WHO vaccine news, and what travelers need to know.
Open questions for next time: whether Pinellas confirms its own extension and a new end date, how Orange's flights over Apopka and Pine Hills go if the weather holds, and when a newer state weekly report moves the local count past October 17th, including Seminole's two cases. That's Dengue Fever Watch, part of the Lantern Podcasts family. Drain the flowerpots, and take care.