An elderly woman became the first known person to die of dengue fever in Florida earlier this month.

Gay Small passed away at Tampa General Hospital on her birthday on September 4, her 80th birthday, after a mosquito bit her near her home, the Florida Department of Health said.

Her death certificate includes 'dengue infection' along with 'septic shock' and 'multi-organ failure,' the Tampa Bay Times reported.

The state's health department also confirmed Friday dengue fever was the cause of her death.

Gay's daughter, Anna Small, previously told News Channel 8: 'It’s so unfair because she was in good health and she worked hard to stay healthy and she walked and she ate right and you know, all the things that you’re supposed to do.

'And you know, this virus just kind of comes out of nowhere. She met the wrong mosquito, and that’s it.'

Small's family believes she may have first caught dengue years ago while travelling abroad without realizing.

Anna described her mom's deteriorating condition in the hospital, saying that her hands turned red and her voice trembled. 

She also added that her father used to work for pharma companies and previously worked on a vaccine for dengue. Unfortunately, there is still no effective vaccine against the illness.

Kristi Miley, a professor at the University of South Florida's College of Public Health, said that Small's death is Tampa Bay's first fatality from the tropical disease in almost 100 years.

Florida has been experiencing an unprecedented outbreak of locally caught dengue cases since July, however.

Hillsborough County has been at the epicenter of the uptick, with 134 out of 152 people who caught the disease in Florida this summer contracting it there.

More than 330 cases have been reported in the Sunshine State this year, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

That's the greatest prevalence of dengue fever diagnoses in the country. California is second with 31 cases.

Paolo Pecora, an environmental scientist with Hillsborough County, said the county has never seen an outbreak of this scale.

Pecora also appealed to residents to keep rates down by reducing mosquito breeding habitats and keeping outdoor containers or surfaces where liquid pools empty if possible. 

'It's a team effort. It's a community effort,' Pecora told the Tampa Bay Times. 'That's how this problem is really going to be resolved.'