Hawaii Department of Health officials on Thursday morning confirmed another case of dengue fever on Hawaii Island — the state’s first new case after nearly two weeks without another diagnosis, keeping alive a dengue scare that began last fall.

The new patient does not have a recent history of travel outside the state, ruling out the infection having been acquired elsewhere. The case becomes Hawaii’s 261st of locally acquired dengue fever since the outbreak began last September, health officials say.

Emergency management and public health officials have been sprinting in recent months to get in front of the fast-spreading illness. Hampered by staffing in multiple public health position types that was reduced during the economic downturn following 2008 and never restored, the state has focused all its dengue fighting resources on Hawaii Island, where the outbreak was contained, and are still building up to make sure the disease is completely stopped.

“The same response work conducted during the height of the outbreak is continuing,” said Keith Kawaoka, deputy director of the state Environmental Health Administration, in a news release. “We haven’t let up on our response efforts even with the slowdown in cases. The department is recruiting eight additional vector control positions on Hawaii Island to increase and sustain effective mosquito abatement work.”

One reason for that continued aggressive response is a level of underreporting that epidemiologists say accompanies virtually every infectious disease outbreak. Darryl Oliveira, administrator of the Hawaii County Civil Defense Agency and incident commander of the Hawaii Island dengue response, said residents who think they may have been infected are urged to come forward and be tested, as much for their own health as to help authorities mitigate further spread of the illness.

Hawaii Island public health officials are engaging residents in a “fight the bite” campaign, encouraging community members to take multiple steps to wipe out breeding areas for the mosquitoes that carry dengue. Those steps include eliminating standing water around homes, fixing outdoor faucets and hoses that may be dripping water, clearing storm gutters and other outdoor drains and treating bromeliads and other plants that hold water with larvicide.

“The fight against mosquitoes is far from over. Even as this outbreak is winding down, we need to continue working together to fight the bite,” said Kawaoka.