LAS VEGAS (AP) — Officials say a Southern Nevada man has contracted this year's first case of West Nile virus in the state.

The 50-year-old man has caught the serious form of the virus capable of infecting the nervous system.

There had been two reported West Nile cases and three cases of St. Louis Encephalitis, a similar mosquito-borne illness, in 2016.

West Nile virus is spread through the bites of infected mosquitoes that have acquired the virus by feeding on infected birds. The illness is not spread person to person. Many people with the virus will have no symptoms or very mild symptoms of illness.