‘It could be a health threat’: Officials warn about dengue, sloth fever in Orange County

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Orange County officials are sounding the alarm on the cases of mosquito-transmitted diseases.

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It’s an issue they haven’t dealt with in a long time - dengue fever, spreading locally for the first time in decades.

“It’s concerning to have locally acquired cases here because we don’t want local transmission,” said Steve Harrison, Manager of the Mosquito Control Division in Orange County. “It’s hot, it’s wet, mosquitoes are active. We’re out controlling, not only disease vectoring mosquitoes, but we’re controlling nuisance mosquitoes.”

Data from the State Health Department shows there have been 29 cases of dengue in Orange County in 2024 so far, 27 of them related to international travel.

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“We have the vector here, which is that mosquito. We have a susceptible population. We just don’t always have the pathogen,” said Harrison. “When you have those three components - the pathogen, the mosquito, and the population - that’s when it could become a public health threat for us.”

The dengue virus is transmitted through a mosquito bite.

The insect carries the disease from person to person, contaminating multiple over its life span.

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“We want to prevent that local transmission. We do not want any arboviruses, whether it’s dengue, Zika, chikungunya, malaria, any of those diseases to be transmitted from person to person in Orange County,” said Harrison.

According to the county, dengue is currently endemic in the Amazon region, with the CDC reporting outbreaks in Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, and Peru.

Dengue is not the only mosquito-related illness the county is currently fighting.

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For the first time ever, two cases of Oropouche virus - known as the Sloth Fever - have been found in our area. “These are tropical diseases. They are very prevalent in other parts of the world where it’s, you know, very, very humid, very wet, very warm, and then obviously you can jump on a plane travel to Orange County in a matter of hours,” said Harrison.

The county right now is using spray machines in targeted areas, especially near the Lockhart-Rosemont area, where the dengue cases were reported.

Officials are urging residents to pay attention to their yards to avoid any standing water to prevent the spread of mosquitoes.

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