The primary recorded dying from West Nile virus this 12 months in L.A. County was confirmed Friday by the Los Angeles County Division of Public Well being.
The person, whose particulars have been saved nameless, was hospitalized within the San Fernando Valley for neurological sickness attributable to the mosquito-borne virus. In Southern California, October is the center of mosquito season.
Throughout Los Angeles County, 14 West Nile virus infections have been documented in 2025; half have been within the San Fernando Valley.
L.A. has had a median of 58 West Nile infections per 12 months since 2020, with a median of 1 dying per 12 months, in keeping with information from the Los Angeles County Division of Public Well being.
West Nile virus impacts round 2,000 People a 12 months, in keeping with the U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention. Viral an infection can quite a few signs, with gentle sickness signs consisting of fever, headache, physique aches, vomiting, rash or diarrhea, the CDC says.
A extra extreme and regarding case could cause neck stiffness, stupor, disorientation, tremors, convulsions, muscle weak point, imaginative and prescient loss, numbness, or paralysis. Officers warn that the consequences of extreme sickness could possibly be everlasting or lead to dying.
In some instances, an infection doesn’t trigger signs.
The California Public Well being Division notes that there are a selection of species inside the Culex mosquito genus, which is a major provider of the virus, discovered all through Los Angeles County.
The San Fernando Valley space lately suffered from water outages and has, over the past 12 months, constantly skilled below-average rainfall and drought circumstances.
In a 2025 examine from the Nationwide Institutes of Well being, analysis confirmed that droughts raised threat components for West Nile virus. Information from greater than 50,000 traps revealed that whereas drought circumstances diminished general mosquito populations and standing our bodies of water, it consolidated the contaminated mosquitos and birds, which additionally carry the illness, round restricted water sources. The result’s sooner transmission fee among the many smaller populations, which go on to contaminate people. Within the San Fernando Valley, the place drought circumstances are count on to proceed by way of a dry La Niña season, the diminished water sources could result in increased an infection charges.
To keep away from contracting West Nile virus, the CDC recommends lowering exterior actions in the course of the daytime, when mosquitos are most energetic. Officers additionally say that emptying or changing containers of standing water (the place mosquitos are inclined to breed), putting in window screens, and sporting protecting pores and skin coverings or utilizing insect repellent when exterior may also scale back publicity.
