New Hampshire Resident Dies After Testing Positive for Eastern Equine Encephalitis

New Hampshire Resident Dies After Testing Positive for Eastern Equine Encephalitis

Earlier this week, I reported that four Massachusetts towns enacted voluntary evening lockdowns to curb the spread of Eastern Equine Encephalitis, a potentially deadly mosquito-borne disease.

Eastern equine encephalitis, commonly called Triple E or sleeping sickness, is a disease caused by a mosquito-vectored Togavirus that is present in North, Central, and South America, and the Caribbean. Although rare, Triple E virus is very serious as approximately 30% of infected people die. Furthermore, many survivors have ongoing neurologic problems.

Now, a New Hampshire resident has died after contracting the disease.

The patient, identified only as an adult from Hampstead, New Hampshire, a town in the state’s southeastern corner, tested positive for the equine virus (EEEV) and was hospitalized with severe central nervous system symptoms before death, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services.

The case was announced after four nonfatal human EEEV infections were reported in the U.S. this year to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: one each in the neighboring New England states of Massachusetts and Vermont and one each in Wisconsin and New Jersey.

The last reported human EEEV case in New Hampshire was in 2014, when three infections were documented, two of them fatal.

In addition to the latest New Hampshire human case, Eastern equine encephalitis has been detected in one horse and seven batches of mosquito samples this summer, state officials said.

Back in Massachusetts, one town is closing its public parks and fields at night in response to the local conditions.

New measures in the coastal town of Plymouth, about 40 miles southeast of Boston, come after mosquitoes in the area tested positive for EEE and the state reported its first human case of the virus since 2020.

“As (the Massachusetts Department of Public Health) has now elevated Plymouth’s EEE risk status to high, it is important to take extra precautions when outdoors and follow state and local health guidelines to avoid unnecessary risk to exposure to EEE,” said Michelle Bratti, Plymouth Commissioner of Health and Human Services.

Earlier this month, one case was reported in Vermont, the first recorded since 2012.

Earlier this month, the Vermont Department of Health said that a man in his 40s from Chittenden County was the first person identified with the disease in the state since 2012, when two people contracted E.E.E. and died. The Chittenden County resident was hospitalized in July and left the hospital a week later.

There are no human vaccines or treatments for EEE. In addition to Massachusetts, New York is also on alert for this pathogen.

The good news is that EEE is not in contention to be an election-interfering pandemic.

The transmission of EEE occurs when mosquitoes become infected by feeding on birds that carry the virus. Humans can contract EEE when bitten by an infected mosquito, but it is not spread person to person. Environmental factors like warm weather and standing water increase mosquito populations, raising the risk of transmission.

“People freak out, and I understand why, but it’s an emotional response, not a scientific one; there are more things in the world to be freaked out about,” said Joseph Vinetz, an infectious-disease expert at Yale School of Medicine. “But I understand why people are worried about it. If it happens to your family, it’s terrible, but it’s so vanishingly rare.”

About 11 people annually contract EEE, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but the rise of other mosquito-borne illnesses, such as malaria, worries health experts as climate change alters the habits and distribution of mosquitoes.

“EEE is not going to be a plague that engulfs mankind,” Vinetz said.

Plus, in November, the mosquito population should be substantially reduced.

However, until then, if you are in an affected area it is wise to take precautions.

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