{"id":350912,"date":"2026-09-19T04:34:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T04:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/350912\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T04:34:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T04:34:14","slug":"cases-of-west-nile-virus-soar-in-nyc-surpassing-total-number-in-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/350912\/","title":{"rendered":"Cases of West Nile virus soar in NYC, surpassing total number in 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

The number of Big Apple residents diagnosed this year with the potentially dangerous West Nile virus has surpassed the total number of cases in 2025, according to city health data.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At least 30 people have contracted the mosquito-borne disease since the first case of the year was announced early August<\/a> \u2014 a stark contrast a total of 18 cases in 2025.<\/p>\n

All five boroughs have been plagued by the positive blood-suckers but Brooklyn leads the pack with 11 confirmed cases of the virus. <\/p>\n

\"TransmissionThe number of West Nile virus cases in NYC this year has surpassed the total seen in 2025. BSIP\/Universal Images Group via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Queens and Staten Island each have seven cases, the Bronx has reported three and Manhattan has two.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Of the 30 confirmed cases across the Big Apple, 24 of those are characterized as the more severe West Nile neuroinvasive disease which include encephalitis, meningitis or acute flaccid paralysis.<\/p>\n

The remaining six cases are classified as West Nile fever, with no evidence of central nervous system involvement.<\/p>\n

Gotham has also seen an increase in the number of positive mosquito pools plaguing the boroughs<\/a> \u2014 with over 1,700 positive samples in 2026 compared to a little over 1,300 last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The number of positive blood-sucker samples in the Big Apple this year is a record, according to city health official Sally Slavinski.<\/p>\n

Slavinski, who works as the director of the city health department Zoonotic and Vector-Borne Disease unit, believes warmer temperatures are to blame for the uptick. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that warmer temperatures can accelerate the mosquito life cycle and speed up viral replication in the mosquito, so that\u2019s gonna shorten the time that it takes for there to be an infected mosquito and then transmit that virus,\u201d Slavinski told Gothamist.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWith this increased rainfall and humidity, it makes it easier for mosquitoes to thrive,\u201d she said, adding that \u201cthese longer, warmer seasons where we\u2019re having mosquitoes appear earlier and are active later in the year, there\u2019s more opportunity for transmission to occur.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AThe number of positive mosquito pools has also exploded this year compared to 2025. Superzoom \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

The health department monitors populations of the flying pest and applies pesticides during the summer months to reduce the number of the mosquitos.<\/p>\n

West Nile virus is the only mosquito-borne disease known to spread to humans in New York City and has been plaguing residents for over 25 years.<\/p>\n

Most people infected by the disease never experience symptoms \u2014 but approximately one in five may develop a mild illness that can include fever, headache, body ache, nausea and vomiting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Slavinski says the higher rate of confirmed neuroinvasive cases \u2014 the more severe outcome from West Nile disease \u2014 indicates that most infected New Yorkers don\u2019t get sick enough to seek medical care, so the numbers might not be 100% accurate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYoung, healthy people are not even realizing they may be infected or might have some mild illness,\u201d she told the publication, adding that, \u201cthese are folks that are not necessarily getting tested.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we don\u2019t know about these folks that weren\u2019t sick or had mild illness,\u201d Slavinski said. <\/p>\n

The city official added that \u201cthe people that are more likely to get tested\u201d for West Nile disease \u201care the people who are really sick; they\u2019re getting hospitalized, and they\u2019re getting worked up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are the folks with West Nile neuroinvasive disease,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The number of Big Apple residents diagnosed this year with the potentially dangerous West Nile virus has surpassed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350913,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[5236,57,3868,9,56,63,65,64,3610,58,3731],"class_list":["post-350912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-diseases","tag-metro","tag-mosquitoes","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-public-health","tag-us-news","tag-virus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350912","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=350912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}