Officials from the Kern County Health Department announced Friday that the county has its first case of West Nile virus for 2008.

Officials say that the infected woman is between 40 and 50 years old and passed the initial test in August. This month, she returned to the doctor when her symptoms persisted.

The unidentified woman is expected to be OK.

John Nilon, director of the public heath department, says that this year the number of cases have drastically dropped, thanks to improved efforts, including taking aerial photography to identify large areas of water that need to be treated and sending out nearly 400,000 packages of mosquito repellent.

"We were out there this year," Nilon said. "We were fighting hard."

Last year, Kern County led the nation with 140 cases of West Nile virus, leading to four deaths. Officials say mosquitoes thrive in warmer weather, and they don't expect to see many cases heading through fall and winter.