The primary recorded loss of life 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 loss of life per 12 months, in accordance with information from the Los Angeles County Division of Public Well being.
West Nile virus impacts round 2,000 Individuals a 12 months, in accordance with the U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention. Viral an infection can a lot 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 spot, imaginative and prescient loss, numbness, or paralysis. Officers warn that the results of extreme sickness could possibly be everlasting or lead to loss of life.
In some instances, an infection doesn’t trigger signs.
The California Public Well being Division notes that there are a selection of species throughout the Culex mosquito genus, which is a major service of the virus, discovered all through Los Angeles County.
The San Fernando Valley space lately suffered from water outages and has, during the last 12 months, persistently skilled below-average rainfall and drought situations.
In a 2025 examine from the Nationwide Institutes of Well being, analysis confirmed that droughts raised danger components for West Nile virus. Information 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 quicker transmission price 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 way of a dry La Niña season, the lowered water sources might 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 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 exterior also can scale back publicity.
