A cluster of three cases in Baldwin Park “is an unprecedented number of locally transmitted cases for a region where dengue has not previously been transmitted by mosquitoes.”

According to the health department, none of the patients had any history of traveling to areas where dengue is endemic.

“Dengue is primarily transmitted through the bite of an infected Aedes mosquito. Although Aedes mosquitoes are common in LA County, cases of locally acquired dengue are extremely rare,” Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said Wednesday.

Los Angeles health officials announced they are investigating a handful of locally acquired dengue fever cases in the city of Baldwin Park.

At least three cases of dengue fever have been reported in residents bitten by local mosquitoes in the Baldwin Park neighborhood east of downtown Los Angeles.

Health officials warned that the Los Angeles area is seeing more dengue fever cases in people who have not traveled outside the U.S. mainland, a year after the first such case was reported in California.

For the first time in California, health officials have reported a cluster of dengue fever cases that are not travel-related and warned residents to protect themselves from mosquito bites. Two more locally acquired cases of the mosquito-borne illness dengue have been detected in Baldwin Park residents,

Health officials reported a single case of locally acquired dengue in Long Beach last year. Now, three such cases in Baldwin Park mark an unprecedented escalation.