Santa Clara County has confirmed its first two human West Nile virus cases of 2026, and in the same announcement, county officials said they cannot determine where either person was infected.
Both patients traveled domestically during the disease's incubation period, which generally runs from two days to two weeks. That travel makes it impossible to attribute the infections to local mosquitoes, and the county said so plainly rather than leaving the impression that the virus is now confirmed to be infecting people in the South Bay.
