A New Hampshire resident has died from eastern equine encephalitis, or EEE, a rare but deadly virus spread by mosquitoes, the state’s Health Department announced Tuesday. It’s the first EEE death reported in the United States so far this year. The individual had been “hospitalized due to severe central nervous system disease,” New Hampshire health officials said.
The case is the fifth this year. EEE cases have been reported in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Vermont and Wisconsin, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . The nation is in the midst of peak mosquito season, as the insects tend to be most active in August and September.
“The risk will continue into the fall until there is a hard frost that kills" the mosquitoes, New Hampshire’s state epidemiologist, Dr. Benjamin Chan, said in a news release Tuesday. The Massachusetts Public Health Department announced that insecticide sprays would begin this week following a case of EEE in a man in his 80s .
Several Massachusetts towns said they will close public parks from dusk until dawn, when mosquitoes are most active. While many people with EEE have no symptoms, others develop symptoms typical of many viruses: fever, chills, body aches, vomiting, diarrhea or fatigue. Sometimes, encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain, can occur, as well as meningitis, an inflammation of the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord.
This year, so far, is not a record-breaker for the virus. Last year, sev.