The West Nile virus made its first human victim this year in the state of California. A 72-year-old woman from Buena Park became the first victim. She had been taken to the hospital and given treatment to counter her West Nile virus symptoms, but, unfortunately, she didn’t make it, state officials said.

The Orange County Health Care Agency confirmed in a Monday-released statement, that the woman died due to West Nile virus infection. Authorities only confirmed the death, but did not release any details about the case such as when the woman had been infected or when exactly she was brought to the hospital.

According to Howard Sutter, spokesman for the local health care agency, the victim died of complications stemming from infection with West Nile neuroinvasive disease, the most dangerous form of the virus. It is unknown in which hospital the woman died.

This is the first death caused by infection with West Nile virus in Orange County since 2004, a year in which authorities reported 710 infections and 21 infection-related deaths in California. This year, OC authorities said there were 30 cases of infection with the potentially-deadly virus.

Shutter said the victim probably got the virus from a mosquito bite. The mosquitoes get the virus by sucking the blood from dead birds and then transmit it to humans and animals when feeding on them.

"This is an important reminder that this can be a serious illness. It is a very unpredictable virus," Shutter added.

People above the age of 50 are the most exposed to complications of the West Nile virus, but there have already been numerous cases of infection among people under 50, authorities said. However, the alarming fact is that nearly 70% of those infected this year have contracted the more dangerous form of the virus – the West Nile neuroinvasive disease.