dengue outbreak briefing from health and mosquito control
What the county recorded
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The county’s agenda for Board of County Commissioners, Sep 29, 2026
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The county’s minutes for Board of County Commissioners, Sep 29, 2026
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What was said
Machine transcription of 27m of recording, with speaker names inferred from voice matching. 73% of 79 lines carry a name. It shows what was said, not what was decided, and both the words and the names can be wrong.
We have quorum. Uh first time up for discussion uh is from the Department of Health.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Before I bring up uh Department of Health, I'd like to ask Emergency Management Director Andy Fossa to come up and uh give us a uh quick overview of what the situation.
Welcome, Mr. Foster. Thank you, sir. Andy Foster, Emergency Management Director for Pasco County. Basically, I'm just going to brief you guys that since last week we've been on our local state of emergency. Pasco County Emergency Management has moved to a modified level two, which that means is our we're staffing our EOC and support with mosquito control in the Department of Health. As of right now, we've had no resource requests come in for assistance, but we are working with our internal
departments with solid waste. We're going to try a tire removal and some items like that. Other than that, we've been pretty well off so far. We're very lucky we were we're in a preventative stage. We're not reactive, so we're very fortunate at this time. So with that being said, I'd like to call Trang and Adrian up. Um they have a small presentation for you guys. And if you have any questions for me, please by all means let me know. Any questions
for Mr. Faster? Yeah. Thanks, sir.
Hi, good afternoon, Commissioners. Thank you for calling the meeting today and I appreciate your support. I'm Sharon Chitacombe, the Health Officer for Department of Health in Pasco County.
Good morning. Uh good afternoon. Sorry, we've been very busy. My name is Adrian Rogers. I'm the Executive Director of the Pasco County Mosquito Control District. And so we just want to give
you a brief overview. So dengue is a common mosquito-borne illness. We typically work on cases of dengue each year. Dengue happens usually in tropical and subtropical regions. It's endemic in over a hundred countries around the world. So essentially, there are a million cases, a million cases. Around the world each year. Typically there are four cases of dengue. What we're looking at today is specifically
dengue two in our region. And while most cases present like flu-like symptoms, there are cases, a small amount of cases that could become severe.
So when we're taking a look at transmission cycle, it's important to note that In order to transmit dengue from one person, it does not transmit from one person to another. So if somebody's sick, they can't give it to another individual. It is a mosquito in infection. So essentially an individual has to that is presenting symptoms, if a mosquito bites them, then that that mosquito now becomes infected and then can infect others. So it's not a person to
person, rather mosquito to person. And typically, again, typically we have cases that we deal with every year, Department of Health, and it's travel related. But what we're looking at and what we're really focused on is the local cases that's happening right now in our county and the region. So I'm gonna give it over to Adrian to talk a little bit about the Mosquito.
Good. Thank you, Ms. Chiticone. Primary mosquito that is responsible for transmitting Genga virus is Aedes Egypti. This mosquito species is exceptionally well adapted to living around people. It does not require a lake or a pond or a large body of water. It can develop in flower pots, in people's backyards, in buckets, in children's toys that are left out to collect rainwater, in your pets dishes, clogged rain gutters, pool covers, anything that can hold a very small,
relatively small amount of water, something as small as this bottle cap is. Big enough to produce hundreds of ADs Egyptian mosquitoes. This mosquito, the production sites where they are found are distributed throughout all of our developed communities in the Greater Tampa Bay region. This means that the appropriate mosquito control measures are required and it is an extremely labor-intensive response. When we learn of a peep person that is Under investigation for
dengue, we don't simply put that address on a spray list. We're looking at a variety of different things. We're looking at the surrounding area. We're looking at the mosquito surveillance data that's coming in. We need to identify where mosquitoes are being produced. We need to perform source reduction, so physically going around and dumping out water holding containers in people's yards. We need larval treatment, attacking mosquitoes in the immature lifestyle. We needed adult mosquito control. And then we need to come back and determine whether or not those interventions are working. And we need to do this repeatedly.
That takes time, that takes people, that takes licensed mosquito control per professionals, it takes equipment, product, and again repeated efforts.
The oh
Uh we'll let uh Ms. Chittacoan talk about the incubation period for mosquitoes and humans.
So earlier I was uh saying when an individual is bitten by an infected mosquito, it takes typically anywhere from three to two weeks in order for someone to um had symptoms. And really the symptoms start off with high fever. Body aches, uh dengue has a nickname breakbone fever, and so there's body bait body aches, um, severe muscle pain, joint pain. Now, this is in a small
percentage that individuals get symptoms. There is no cure, it's essentially just rest, hydrate, um, seek medical attention if the symptoms get worse. So, really just waiting it out. Um However, One thing I do wanna point out and then pointed out before is that out of one out of four individuals that are infected, Really, 75% never show any symptoms. So 75%, 60 to 80% never show any symptoms,
and the 20 to 40% do show symptoms out of those individuals, they may present very mild symptoms. So fever, much like the flu, fever, um, body aches, and they may never get tested. So with it with dengue, Majority of individuals do get the milder symptoms. There is a small percentage, less 5% or less, that do have severe dengue. Those are individuals that are at high risk. So individuals that may have had dengue before
that may not know it and then get dengue again. Individuals that are infants just because of their immunity and their, you know, how small. They are. Individuals that are 65 and older, underlying conditions in pregnant women. Those individuals are at higher risk of having severe dengue. And the survival rate is actually pretty high, 99 to 99.5%. However, there is a small percentage that it
could become fatal.
So really what we the what we're looking at locally here is the increase in cases that we're seeing in the Tampa Bay region. This is the highest number of cases that we've seen in decades, local cases in decades in our region. And it is essential that we take preventative measures now. So that we are reducing the mosquito population, we're getting awareness out there. Some of the things that we can do, and
we've been pushing this message out with your help and your team's help and our partnerships here, making sure that we're draining, covering, protecting individuals with mosquito repellent, making sure that repellent that you're using is EPA approved. And if you're using repellent on children, Making sure that is appropriate for small and young children. And Adrian can talk a little bit more about other preventatives.
Thank you. Mosquito Control cannot do this alone. We have a call to action for every one of our residents and everyone in this room. We at Mosquito Control we can treat thousands of acres, we can fly our helicopters, we can operate our trucks in neighborhoods, we can conduct surveillance, but we cannot control every water holding container around every private property in Pasco County. Every homeowner, every landlord, every business owner, every property manager has a role to play in Dengue
Response here and in the greater Tampa Bay area. And I'm asking people to walk their properties not just once, but repeatedly, every few days. Dump out water, drain it, remove it, turn it over, cover it, find it incapable of holding water. Look around your homes and businesses after rainfall. Look under tarps, look under sheds, um, look at those flower pots and all of those things, receptacles in your in your area that can hold water and protect yourself from mosquito exposure. Um and this is not just something that we want you to do during the nighttime. Traditional mosquito
control wisdom is To protect yourself around times when mosquitoes are most active around dawn and dusk. This mosquito is very capable and very aggressive to be biting during the daytime. So right in the heat of the day, we're also asking you to take these preventative measures. This is one of the most important things that our community can do to reduce the number of mosquitoes that are capable of transmitting dengue. We also need to recognize that mosquitoes, and more importantly, for this specific mosquito species, don't observe county
boundaries. People don't observe county boundaries. And what happens in Hillsborough County affects Pasco County. What happens in Pasco County affects Pinellas County. We are all very interconnected. We have thousands of people traveling between our region into different counties every single day for work. For recreation, for school, for healthcare, for business. And that's why I believe that the actions that the board, Pasco County, Board of County Commissioners took last week were very important, and the board did act proactively, as Director Faster said. This is bigger than anyone
agency, this is bigger than any one mosquito control district or any one county. And this is not routine mosquito control response. In a regional capacity, and that's really what the situation requires. Um, at this time, we've just still have a small number of confirmed cases, but we do continue to work very closely with our partners in health in coordinating our surveillance and control efforts. And since This began six weeks ago. The Pasco County
Mosquito Control has substantially increased our surveillance and control activities. We've increased mosquito surveillance, our testing capabilities, our evaluation of AD's Egyptian populations and the different habitats that they're found in. We've expanded our larval control efforts, targeting mosquitoes in the amateur life stage, really helping to disrupt the life cycle as well as the dengue transmission cycle. Conducting wide area liquid larvicide applications by the ground and by air. We've increased our targeted adult mosquito control measures and continued property level response.
For the last four weeks, in addition to what we're doing here in Pasco County, we've also been responding at a regional response level, including providing specialized aerial larval capabilities to assist the Hillsborough County response. Our treatment decisions are not based on whether or not someone is asking us to spray. We're basing those decisions on where the mosquitoes are. Where they are being produced, where the potential disease activity is occurring, whether surveillance is data data is telling us, and what treatment
method is appropriate for this mosquito in particularly and at specific locations. We're using an integrated mosquito management approach. There is not one single method to controlling this problem. And the local declaration gives Pasco the ability to. To move very quickly and help to coordinate response during this outbreak situation. But our needs are growing faster than the Pasco County Mosquito Control District's existing resources. We're currently working with the Florida Department of Agriculture
and Consumer Services as well as other state partners in here locally to identify additional personnel, equipment, aircraft capability. Mosquito control products, surveillance resources, and operational funding that won't be necessary for us to sustain and expand this level of response. One of our most immediate needs is additional personnel for performing what we call domestic sweeps and physically going into proper into communities, in two-person teams, and
into neighborhoods and areas of concern, looking to identify and eliminate water holding containers in people's yards, educating residents, and documenting properties that require additional treatment and flagging those locations for follow-up mosquito control applications with our our licensed and trained personnel. We have also made it very clear to our partners at the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services that this response is reaching a level where additional state-level coordination and resources are most definitely
needed, and we've been working closely with them over the last 48 hours to identify specific needs, not just for here in Pasco County, but through the Tri-County area as well. Our goal is to make sure. that we have resources necessary to match the scale and the intensity of the response and the epidemiological and entomological situation that it is demanding. So again, in in summation here, I'd like to leave you all with three things. Pasco County Mosquito Control District has been very
actively responding to the dengue situation as it's been developing over the last six weeks here and in the greater Tampa Bay Area. This is a regional public health concern, and we cannot, Pasco cannot address this situation in isolation. We need to be working with our regional partners as well as the state partners. And lastly, every resident has a role to play in this response. So you certainly are calling everyone to action to try to help us in this effort.
Just One more one more thing, Terran, then we'll go to questions.
Yeah, one more thing. So um just to give you a current status right now, um the numbers that came out as of last week in our Tampa Bay region, Hillsborough is at 170 cases, Pinellas is at seven, Pasco is currently at two, with multiple all three counties have multiple preliminary positive results. And since the uh local state of uh emergency Has been issued. A lot of healthcare providers are now testing for dengue, which has greatly increased
our response efforts and trying to weed through those. So there's a lot of education that we're doing with healthcare providers on that forefront. And some key takeaways from health side is again, this is the largest outbreak that we've seen in decades related to local. uh mosquito-borne illness within our region. Um the trending numbers that we're seeing is essentially going to put us out, according to State Office, in response to this, a couple of months.
It's at least until November, early December, that our response efforts is gonna take to get this really under control. And wanting to re-circle back to the asymptom asymptomatic folks. While asymptomatic individuals may not present illness right now, the concern is if a new strain out of those four types gets introduced into our community in the future, that could be problematic for
individuals from the health side. So current things that we are doing, we are working with uh Mosquito Control to do door-to-door. We're trying to increase that education there. We're increasing education with healthcare providers, ensuring that we're having that instant communication and reminding folks that they need to report those cases to us. that we can proactively take the steps that we need to. And
that is and I appreciate you guys taking a look at this local standard emergency and helping us through this. So appreciate you all listen to us today.
Thank
you. Ms. Oakley.
Yes sir. Um and this may be a question not necessarily for y'all but for uh Mr. Fossa, but the fact of it is uh tires are one of the sources that we've had water catch into in the rural area. People always they take a tire off, it's no good, it's blown out, they throw it under a tree or put it away. Would it be a help to us if we allowed those car tires or tires that are coming to
the wastew waste management services if it would be good to let that come in free for a certain period of time or I'm bringing
Kevin Puliska up here, he'll answer that question. We are doing a pro we are going to be doing a program like that. Right. Um, but he has the particulars.
Okay. Thank you.
Uh good afternoon. Kevin Puliska, Solid Waste Director. Yes, working with uh Andy and the team. Um we are doing more of an amnesty where people can bring more tires to our locations, expanding tire drop-off areas as well. Um that's at a minimum. That's what we're committing to do right now. But but you are absolutely correct. So you know, we see a lot of that when we do community cleanups. We get a lot of tires in. Um by making this amnesty and more of them can come in without charge, hopefully
we see more of that.
Yeah. Okay, thank you. Commissioner Yeager, you have anything?
No, I just wanted to give um a shout out, a thank you to Trang and her crew. Uh the Department of Health was out Thursday in Moon Lake and they were educating our citizens and giving and giving uh bug spray out and the little donuts and um I believe we had like 216 people there. So um they really appreciate the education and you guys coming out. So thank you.
Have one question. Ken Turney. Um in terms of the duration of this emergency, he mentioned November or December. Is that because the temperature drops at that point and then the mosquitoes die or wha what what's the reason for what's magical about November December that this would end?
Yeah, appreciate the question. Um, so we have 80s Egypti populations year-round here in Central Florida. Um for an example, two years ago we had a locally acquired dengue case in January. Um so while temperatures do absolutely influence mosquito production, um it's also rainfall that influences rain uh mosquito production as well. And the Decrease in both of those two things slows down what we're seeing in terms of overall mosquito abundance, but they
don't all they don't just die off for the winter in our region. We will have them through the winter months. But we typically see a seasonal decrease in their populations around December to January and into February because those are colder and more dry months. But the possibility and the very real risk of of transmission to continue beyond that point is is still a very real possibility. So while the CDC is estimating that we might see it sort of die die down around
that time. That that doesn't mean that it's going to be completely solved by them. And that's just really an estimation. Um so what we're doing now is everything we can to try to keep mosquito populations low here in Pasco County. Our regional partners are doing the same in in their own respective areas. But what happens in Hillsborough and and Pinellas affects us here because of the interconnectedness of our our communities. And so um the best thing that we can all collectively do Is get mosquito populations to a very
low level to remove or reduce the potential for continued disease transmission.
Thank you. Okay, question. Any further questions? I have a couple I have a couple of questions. So the asymptomatic folks, if they happen to um be bit a second time, is there an increase that they will see symptoms or will they stay asymptomatic?
So if a asymptomatic that if an individual is infected with dengue first and they're asymptomatic, depending on what type they have, if there is a new type that's introduced, that is where it becomes prod problematic and severe.
So then the asymptomatic votes could potentially show symptoms The second time around. New the new the more developed strain.
There's four type four strains at this at this time and it just depends on what region it's coming from. Um but essentially if an individual is infected again, that is becomes serious for that individual. So right now we've got tons of people, probably asymptomatic, um, and the problem becomes year maybe a year, maybe two years down the road, if there's a new strain that gets introduced into our community, that's where it becomes a problem.
Thank you. Uh next question uh from Mr. Rogers. Uh as far as your your your boots on the ground folks, how many um people are you needing and or could volunteers from the different environmental groups, the road cleanup crews, uh would they be able to potentially help? um with the labor intensive side, the door to door campaign, um all all of the the work that goes
into that part of the process.
Yes, so uh right now with the number of cases that we are actively working that are coming from the Department of Health, um because as Ms. Chittakone mentioned, there uh while we have three that are confirmed, um we do have additional cases that were uh investigating. Um so we're responding to each one of these suspected cases at this point. Um and as those numbers continue to increase um we need we'll need more staff. Um Trang has committed um a a number of her team were at our facility yesterday to get some
training on how to do this. So it's a very easy thing that we can ramp up. We could potentially use um volunteers from some of the organizations that she mentioned. But if we had a pool of 30 individuals that could be deployed as needed, because surely they're not going to be able to commit every day of the week to be able to do this response, that would be a sufficient level at this time. Certainly if we see things dramatically increase like what's happening in Hillsborough, we may need to revisit that number. But if we could get close to about
30 individuals to to work. And these two person teams that would be very helpful to assist in our efforts in responding to the caseload currently.
Very good.
The so we have El Nino coming right, so it's gonna be a a warmer, wetter, winter. Said that fluidly.
Are you all anticipated anticipating that that will help, that that will increase the duration of of the problem, or will it literally potentially drown out some of these challenges? Or do we is there any data behind that?
Unfortunately, the the thought that it will drown them out um is is not really something that we're we're looking at right now. Um Mosquitoes require warm temperatures and rainfall. So the more mild our winter is, the more rainfall we get throughout the winter, the more mosquito populations are going to remain at a higher level until um it's drier where the mosquitoes are are then going to be able to see a a seasonal reduction. Um so unfortunately if we do get more rain
and higher temperatures throughout the winter months, um, we could potentially have mosquito populations um high enough where disease potential is is still very real.
Thank you. And uh to Commissioner Oakley's point on tires, do we have a start date on when the county will be accepting, potentially accepting uh derelic tires in our county?
That should be going out sometime later on this afternoon according to Solid Waste.
Okay. Can I turn?
Are the cases in Hillsborough spread out throughout the entire county or are there portions of Hillsborough County that are seeing more activity than others? And and I guess the follow up to that, are there portions of Hillsborough County that our residents should avoid going into because of this um epidemic?
There are cases in Hillsborough County that are widespread throughout the county. Um they're is a a large area of the city center um that has a a number of cases as well as positive mosquito pools, but it's not restricted to that that general area of of this around the city of Tampa. So it is bigger than than than just the the city boundaries itself. It is quite widespread at this point. Um and so we are very strongly encouraging anyone
um spending out time outside um in Hillsborough County, but also here in in Pasco in this entire greater Tampa Bay area, please take the necessary precautions and protect yourself from mosquito exposure. Use a US EPA approved insect repellent, something containing DEET or Picaridin as the active ingredient. Those are going to provide really good protection for exposed skin. Wear long uh loose fitting, long sleeve shirts, long pants, shoes and socks. Um again, this mosquito is very active during the day, so even
in the heat of the day, you're going to want to take these necessary precautions to protect yourself from mosquito exposure.
Any further questions from the board? Okay, administrator.