Health department confirms dengue fever in Orange County

LAKE MARY, Fla. (AP) - A health department official from Orange County has told FOX 35 that there are three cases of dengue fever in Orange County.

Late Thursday, health officials in Miami and Ocala were reporting the first suspected cases of dengue fever, a potentially serious mosquito-borne illness that had once disappeared from the United States.

Dengue fever is a flulike illness spread by the bite of an infected Aedes aegypti mosquito, a common urban mosquito in the U.S. and Caribbean. It's known as breakbone fever because of the intense joint pain suffered in extreme cases.

Health officials say the Miami Beach man who is suspected of contracting the disease has fully recovered. No further information was released Thursday about the case in Ocala.

A recent study revealed five percent of Key West residents show evidence they have been exposed to the virus, but few became ill.

Orange County Health Department spokesperson Dan Weister said the cases in Orange County involve residents who have traveled to Puerto Rico and the Caribbean.