\u201cNow is the time for every New Yorker, especially older adults and people with weakened immune systems, to take simple precautions to prevent mosquito bites,\u201d Martin said.\n<\/p>\n
Many individuals infected with West Nile virus, around 80%, never show any discernible symptoms, according to Dr. Anna Durbin<\/a>, a professor of International Health, specializing in epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University. But some cases can develop into mild fever, body aches, and nausea or even potentially severe<\/a> or life-threatening neurological inflammation like encephalitis or meningitis.<\/p>\n How can New Yorkers stop infected mosquitoes from biting them? To prevent infection, the city\u2019s health agency recommended reducing the risk of bites by using EPA-registered repellents, wearing protective clothing, and avoiding outdoor activities around dawn and dusk, when mosquitoes that transmit the virus are particularly active.<\/p>\n The DOHMH also asked New Yorkers to do their part by reducing the opportunities for mosquitoes to breed in the city. Mosquitoes need stagnant or standing water to reproduce<\/a>, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, meaning that outside of natural sources, pools of water in flowerpots, bird baths, tarps or any other surface that can hold water after a rain or flood, can become a potential breeding ground for mosquitoes and West Nile virus carriers.<\/p>\n Residents should be careful to immediately empty all sources of standing water and report other sources of standing water on private or public property to 311, health officials said.\n<\/p>\n The city conducts annual surveillance of mosquito activity<\/a>, testing groups of trapped mosquitoes known as \u201cpools\u201d for the presence of West Nile virus. So far, out of 2,040 pools tested, West Nile virus was detected in 612 across the city, compared with 326 by the same time in 2025.<\/p>\n Health officials said that the city takes action to control the infected mosquito population<\/a> by spraying an environmentally friendly insecticide designed to kill mosquito larvae across nonresidential areas and targeting adult mosquitoes in residential neighborhoods<\/a> with insecticides deployed from trucks.<\/p>\n Martin said that the city\u2019s system allowed it to preemptively notify the public and take action.\n<\/p>\n \u201cThe detection of West Nile virus in mosquitoes demonstrates that New York City\u2019s mosquito surveillance system is working exactly as intended,\u201d said Martin. \u201cOur system allows us to identify where the virus is circulating early and take targeted action to reduce mosquito populations before more people are at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prep the bug spray, because New York City announced Thursday that the number of mosquito pools testing positive…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":315518,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[54277,119033,115359,3868,9,56,63,65,22820,64,109437],"class_list":["post-315517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-department-of-health-and-mental-hygiene","tag-mosquito-season","tag-mosquito-spraying","tag-mosquitoes","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-health","tag-nyc-news","tag-west-nile-virus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n![\"FILE](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/youtubegifterphotosspraying.jpg\" "\\"A")
FILE \u2013 A Health Department-contracted truck sprays pesticide to combat mosquitoes carrying the West Nile virus.Screenshot via YouTube\/gifterphotos<\/p>\n![\"NYC](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Screenshot-2026-08-06-at-4.15.50-PM.jpg\" "\\"A")
NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene publishes a yearly map tracking zip codes which have tested positive for the presence of West Nile Virus in their mosquito populations. Photo: NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene<\/p>\n