West Nile Virus Detected In South Bay City

SUNNYVALE, CA — The Santa Clara County Vector Control District will be spraying insecticide in a small area of Sunnyvale on Friday night after confirming the recent presence of mosquitoes that tested positive for West Nile virus.

The spraying will start around 10 p.m. and will conclude about four hours later in ZIP codes 94086 and 94087 -- centered at Chopin and Rembrandt drives -- using truck-mounted equipment and low-volume insecticide, according to the vector control district. An interactive map of the treatment area can be found here.

The district is notifying residents in the area being treated via the county's AlertSCC notification program as well as on the Nextdoor social media platform. People can call the district's West Nile virus hotline at (408) 282-3114 from 7:30 a.m.-4 p.m. on weekdays or send questions by email to vectorinfo@cep.sccgov.org.

The district says the treatment poses minimal risks to people and pets, but people can take precautions by staying inside and keeping windows and doors shut.

West Nile virus does not cause symptoms in many people, but for some it can cause fever, aches, and in severe cases neurological damage or death. Since the virus arrived in California in 2003, more than 7,000 have been confirmed to have the virus and nearly 400 of those cases were fatal, according to the district.

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