Denton County's West Nile Count Reaches Six, and Four of Those Cases Are the Serious Kind

If you figured cooler temperatures meant you could stop thinking about mosquitoes, Denton County Public Health has a gentle correction. On October 13, the county confirmed its sixth human West Nile case of 2026 — and it's the neuroinvasive kind.

The sixth case was reported Tuesday; the patient, a City of Denton resident, was diagnosed with the neuroinvasive form of the disease. That makes four people in the 2026 mosquito season who have contracted the potentially fatal neuroinvasive form of the virus.

Here's the distinction worth holding onto. The neuroinvasive form develops in less than 1% of West Nile infections. Most people who get infected either have no symptoms at all or feel like they caught a rough flu. But the nervous-system version — think meningitis, encephalitis, or acute flaccid myelitis — is a different situation entirely, and patients who reach that stage face serious risk of death or long-term disability.

"Even though temperatures are decreasing, preventing mosquito-borne illnesses remains a priority," said Juan Rodriguez of DCPH.

The virus doesn't pass person to person. It spreads through the bite of an infected mosquito that has fed on infected birds. That standing water in your backyard — birdbath, low spot in the yard, clogged gutter — is still a breeding ground even in mid-October. Mosquitoes slow down as nights get cold. They haven't stopped.

Who needs to pay closest attention: people over 50 and those with weakened immune systems face a higher risk of severe illness. For everyone else, the odds of the dangerous form remain very low. Prevention is still the whole game. No vaccine exists, and once you have the virus, medicine cannot cure it — which means avoiding bites is the only real tool available.

Practical steps that hold up:

• Long sleeves and pants around dusk and dawn, when mosquitoes feed most actively
• Repellent with DEET, picaridin, or oil of lemon eucalyptus
• Dump any standing water — even a bottle cap holds enough for larvae
• Check window and door screens

The county maintains an interactive map of mosquito traps where West Nile has tested positive. Find it at DentonCounty.gov/WNV. FloMoBee covered the second case, a Colony resident with the neuroinvasive form, back in August. Since then the count has climbed from two to six. Keep the DEET handy a little longer.