Canada Flags Dengue in Tampa’s County
Ottawa's US travel advice now carries a dengue notice for Hillsborough County, home to Tampa. Trips go ahead, but clients should guard against mosquito bites day and night.
Canadians heading to Tampa this winter will see a new health note in Ottawa’s advice. On Thursday 15 October, the Government of Canada added a dengue outbreak notice to its United States travel advice. The page lists it as an “outbreak monitoring alert” in its Health section.
The notice says dengue outbreaks have been reported in Florida, “with most cases occurring in Hillsborough County,” which includes Tampa. It tells travellers to protect themselves from mosquito bites at all times, because the mosquitoes that spread dengue bite during the day and at night. Anyone who develops symptoms should contact a health care provider.
The Florida numbers
The Florida Department of Health has counted 368 locally acquired dengue cases in Florida this year, 310 of them in Hillsborough County. Those figures run to 10 October. Hillsborough is one of seven counties under a mosquito-borne illness alert, the state’s higher level of warning. Neighbouring Pinellas (St. Petersburg and Clearwater) and Pasco are also under alerts.
Sources
Casie Stewart is Senior Editor at Not An Atlas, usually found in a Toronto coffee shop in a cute outfit, laptop open, coffee in hand and phone (always) within arm's reach. Some of her warmest memories are of fishing and camping in New Zealand's Bay of Islands with her family as a kid. She's a New Zealand citizen, and it will always feel like home. She takes the window seat (she wants to see the world, not the beverage cart), swears by her Trtl travel pillow (comfort over cool, always) and orders whatever the locals are having. Waking up to the sounds of the rainforest in the middle of the Costa Rican jungle is her “this is why I travel” moment, and Arizona's deserts and sunsets are where she'd go back tomorrow. She covers the places, people, food and festivals that make a destination memorable. Friends say funny, effervescent and organized. Her mum adds cuddly. Next stop: Bali.
