It took officials several days for health officials to confirm the man had the virus, Tyree said.
Though the man was infected, it was not known whether the virus caused his death, Tyree said. But it would be the first fatality in Los Angeles County caused by West Nile virus this year if confirmed, she said.
Reports of West Nile cases have been generating from the same places — Granada Hills, Panorama City and Van Nuys, said Truc Dever, spokeswoman for the Greater Los Angeles County Vector Control District.
A dead bird carrying the virus was collected in Burbank on Aug. 13 and confirmed to have the virus Thursday, said Minoo Madon, technical services director for the vector control district. The bird, a crow, was found in the 91505 ZIP code in the Naomi Street area, Madon said.
But where the bird was found is less important than where the bird contracted the virus, he said.
West Nile virus is transmitted mostly through southern house mosquitoes, which are common in large urban areas like Los Angeles, he said. They can be found anywhere with stagnant water choked with vegetation, which protects mosquito breeding, he said.
American crows can travel up to 40 miles while foraging, Madon said, which makes determining the location of the source of the disease difficult.
“It’s very hard to determine where that bird was infected,” he said.
The number of mosquito pools — or samples of mosquitoes found in traps — testing positive for West Nile in the vector control district have grown from six on July 12 to 43 as of Friday, Dever said.
People should exercise caution, she said.
