The number of fatalities rise further as cases of an untreatable brain - swelling virus continue to quietly appear around eastern areas of theUS .
There have been 36 confirmed cases of eastern equine encephalitis – and at least 14 destruction – in the US this yr , accord to the late statistic from theUS Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC ) . In a typical twelvemonth , the CDC would expect to see just seven case .
The last dupe was Jim Whitright , a farmer from southwestern Michigan , who decease on November 16 after falling inauspicious in August , reports local news stationWNDU .
Most of the cases have occurred in Massachusetts ( 12 cases ) and Michigan ( 10 ) , but there have also been odd written report from Connecticut , Indiana , North Carolina , New Jersey , Rhode Island , and Tennessee .
Eastern equine phrenitis , also cognise as EEE or triplex E , is characterise as a nasty illness that ensue in potentially deadly brain bulge . As a resolution , survivor of the disease are often go out with permanent brain damage that can lead to severe intellectual impairment , personality upset , and seizures .
Overall , just 4 to 5 percent of infections in reality ensue in the ontogeny of full - blow EEE , although people over the geezerhood of 50 and under the old age of 15 seem to be at bang-up risk . Symptomstypically go with a headache , high-pitched fever , chill , and aching brawn . Some fortunate masses will only live these influenza - like symptoms . However , the virus kills around one - third of the people it infect and leaves many survivors with ongoing neurologic problem .
Worst of all , it ’s untreatable . There ’s presently no human vaccine or specific antiviral treatment for EEE .
The pathogen responsible for the disease is have-to doe with to as EEEV , a New World virus that infects chick , horses , humans , and a handful of other mammal . At least four lineages of the computer virus exist , with one endemic disease to North America and the Caribbean and the other three groups primarily occurring in horses in Central and South America .
The lifecycle and transmission of EEEV are particularly strange . The computer virus infects a specific species of mosquito do it asCuliseta melanura , which generally only feeds on birds , infect them in the process . Uninfected mosquitoes can also become infected by feeding on septic birds . However , to spread to humans , the computer virus requires other mosquito species , such as someAedesandCoquillettidiaspecies , to play as “ span vectors ” that go past the disease from infected birds to humans .
Cases of EEE typically fortify in the US around late summertime and former fall . After this , frosts and cold weather cause mosquito activity to cut down and the spreading of infection start to dwindle . However , if the conditions remains ardent and subzero temperature are n’t too common , the virus can continue to prosper much later into the year .
