A dengue fever alert has been issued in the Florida Keys following two confirmed cases of the mosquito-borne illness.
The local warning comes a week after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a national advisory about the increased risk of dengue virus infections in the United States.
Even though most of the dengue cases reported in the States this year have been travel-related, the two cases that triggered the alert in the Florida Keys were locally acquired, according to officials at the Florida Department of Health in Monroe County.