In the humid neighborhoods of Tampa Bay, a familiar but dangerous visitor has returned with unusual force: dengue fever, carried on the wings of mosquitoes, has infected more than a hundred Floridians and may have claimed the life of an eighty-year-old woman. Health officials, no longer content with advisories alone, are now sending helicopters over residential streets to suppress the mosquito population. The outbreak asks an old question in a new register — how much can modern public health contain what nature, in its indifference, keeps releasing?
Florida dengue outbreak spreads: Nearly 100 cases in Hillsborough County
One potential dengue-related death reported: an 80-year-old Tampa woman.