A 62-year-old Marietta woman is in intensive care at Piedmont Atlanta Hospital with West Nile virus. Her family believes she was bitten by an infected mosquito in East Cobb.

Patti McCoy was hospitalized Sept. 2 with symptoms resembling a stroke, including difficulty speaking, WSB-TV reported. A spinal cord fluid test confirmed West Nile virus had attacked her central nervous system — a severe neurological response that occurs in less than 1% of infections, according to WSB-TV.

McCoy had a kidney transplant 11 years ago and takes immunosuppressive medication. In late August, she developed a persistent high fever, fatigue, body aches and nausea. Four days after her hospital admission, she was intubated and moved to the ICU, 11Alive reported.

As of Sept. 17, McCoy had at times relied on a ventilator to breathe. There is no cure for West Nile virus.

Her daughter Meredith Gionnoni told 11Alive she believes McCoy was bitten in East Cobb. "Our lives have been turned upside down because of a mosquito," Gionnoni told WSB-TV. "And it's really easy to prevent this."

A second metro Atlanta family is facing a similar ordeal. Lorre LaMarca's 76-year-old father had been hospitalized for nearly three weeks as of Sept. 17 after contracting the virus. LaMarca told 11Alive she believes he was bitten while in his yard in Woodstock.

The Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) confirmed Sept. 16 that one person has died from West Nile virus in Georgia in 2026 and that eight human cases have been confirmed statewide. Officials said they expect the number to rise. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data as of Sept. 17 showed confirmed cases in Fulton, Clayton, DeKalb, Muscogee, Chatham and Lee counties. Cobb County did not appear in that CDC data, according to Patch.

Cobb and Douglas Public Health does not test mosquitoes for disease or conduct spraying because of funding limitations, a department spokesperson told 11Alive. The agency does trap mosquitoes and kill larvae in partnership with the state DPH. Valerie Crow, a Cobb and Douglas Public Health spokesperson, said in a written statement to WSB-TV that the trapping helps target mosquito breeding patterns and track species expansion.

Most Georgia counties lack comprehensive public mosquito programs for the same reason, according to the state DPH.

Babies, the elderly, organ transplant recipients and those with compromised immune systems face the greatest risk of severe illness, according to WSB-TV and the Georgia Recorder. Most people who contract the virus experience no symptoms.

The Culex mosquitoes that carry West Nile virus are most active between dusk and dawn, according to the Georgia Recorder. Mosquito season in Georgia lasts through October, per Patch.

The state DPH recommends using EPA-registered insect repellents containing DEET, Picaridin, IR3535 or Oil of Lemon Eucalyptus, according to Patch. DPH spokesperson Nancy Nydam Shirek, in a statement to the Georgia Recorder, urged residents to dump standing water from flowerpots, planters, children's toys, wading pools and buckets at least once a week.