The primary recorded demise from West Nile virus this yr in L.A. County was confirmed Friday by the Los Angeles County Division of Public Well being.
The person, whose particulars have been stored 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 yr since 2020, with a median of 1 demise per yr, based on knowledge from the Los Angeles County Division of Public Well being.
West Nile virus impacts round 2,000 Individuals a yr, based on the U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention. Viral an infection can plenty of signs, with gentle sickness signs consisting of fever, headache, physique aches, vomiting, rash or diarrhea, the CDC says.
A extra extreme and regarding case may cause neck stiffness, stupor, disorientation, tremors, convulsions, muscle weak point, imaginative and prescient loss, numbness, or paralysis. Officers warn that the results of extreme sickness may very well be everlasting or end in demise.
In some circumstances, an infection doesn’t trigger signs.
The California Public Well being Division notes that there are a variety of species throughout the Culex mosquito genus, which is a main 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, persistently skilled below-average rainfall and drought situations.
In a 2025 research from the Nationwide Institutes of Well being, analysis confirmed that droughts raised threat elements for West Nile virus. Knowledge from greater than 50,000 traps revealed that whereas drought situations lowered 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 situations are count on to proceed by means of a dry La Niña season, the lowered water sources might result in greater an infection charges.
To keep away from contracting West Nile virus, the CDC recommends lowering outdoors actions through the daytime, when mosquitos are most lively. Officers additionally say that emptying or changing containers of standing water (the place mosquitos are inclined to breed), putting in window screens, and carrying protecting pores and skin coverings or utilizing insect repellent when outdoors may also cut back publicity.
