{"id":356007,"date":"2026-06-30T17:40:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T17:40:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/356007\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T17:40:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T17:40:20","slug":"mosquitoes-test-positive-for-west-nile-virus-in-travis-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/356007\/","title":{"rendered":"Mosquitoes test positive for West Nile virus in Travis County"},"content":{"rendered":"

AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 A mosquito pool in Travis County has tested positive for West Nile virus, marking the first positive pool of the year, Austin Public Health said.<\/p>\n

While no human cases of West Nile virus have been identified in the county at this time, officials said the positive pool in the 78733 zip code, in Southwest Austin, indicates the virus is present.<\/p>\n

Last year, 41 mosquito pools in Travis County tested positive for West Nile virus, and five human cases<\/a> were reported among Austin-Travis County residents.<\/p>\n

“The weather we’ve seen this year has been a perfect storm for mosquito breeding,” said Todd Mers, an Austin Public Health program manager. “With this increased mosquito activity, we need to take precautions anytime we’re outside. Let’s follow the four Ds and safely enjoy the summer.”<\/p>\n

ALSO | First mosquito trap in Williamson County tests positive for West Nile virus<\/a><\/p>\n

West Nile virus, the most common mosquito-borne disease in the United States, is typically spread to people through the bite of an infected mosquito.<\/p>\n

About 20% of people infected with the virus develop symptoms such as headache, body aches, joint pain, vomiting, diarrhea or rash, health officials said. A small number of those infected go on to develop more serious illness, usually affecting the central nervous system. People over 60 and those with conditions such as cancer, diabetes, hypertension or kidney disease face a greater risk of severe illness, as do organ transplant recipients.<\/p>\n

Austin Public Health is urging residents to follow the “four Ds” to prevent mosquito bites: draining standing water around homes, since mosquitoes can breed in as little as a teaspoon; avoiding outdoor exposure between dusk and dawn, when the Culex mosquitoes that spread West Nile are most active; dressing in long, light-colored, loose-fitting clothing; and applying an EPA-registered insect repellent containing DEET, picaridin or other approved ingredients.<\/p>\n

Mosquitoes are present in Central Texas year-round, but their population peaks between May and November, when the department’s Environmental Vector Control Unit ramps up monitoring efforts.<\/p>\n

The announcement comes about a week after Williamson County reported its own first positive mosquito trap<\/a> of the season, found near Geneva Park in Georgetown.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 A mosquito pool in Travis County has tested positive for West Nile virus, marking the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356008,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-356007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}