United States: On Thursday, public health officials in the United States has announced that they have found one new case of eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) and one new case of West Nile virus. Both cases involve men in their almost 70s. The man with EEE was basically exposed in central Middlesex County, and the man with West Nile virus was exposed in southern Middlesex County.
Virus Risks on the Rise
As reported by Boston.com, both the mosquito-borne viruses which have been on rise for a long time in the Massachusetts and nearby areas lately and the West Nile case has already announced on the Thursday is the seventh in the state this year and the EEE case is the third one.
As of this past week, DPH officials elevated the EEE risk level to high in Acton, Ayer, Boxborough, Carlisle, Littleton and Harvard. This prompted the authorities to up the West Nile risk levels to high in towns such as Stoneham and Wakefield.
Current Risk Levels
The DPH has prepared the maps also available online that depicts where exactly the danger levels are. The current risk level for EEE is currently “critical,” the highest level, in four Worcester County towns: Oxford, Douglas, Sutton, and Webster Partial list of names of the many students who were affected are as follows: Oxford, Douglas, Sutton, and Webster. There are no towns with west Nile virus critical risk level at the moment, although Boston and other regions of eastern Massachusetts are at high risk level.
Evaluating the hazardous impact of both viruses we can conclude that they can express high levels of pathogenicity. As reported early in the week, a New Hampshire man is critical after contracting the EEE, West Nile, and St. Louis encephalitis. For weeks he was on the ventilator in the intensive care unit and is also a required tracheostomy. Recently an amount about $ 38,000 has been donated through GoFundMe page.
Health Impacts and Precautions
EEE is extremely rare, yet it is extremely severe. Currently about 30% of the people who get severe eastern equine encephalitis succumb to the disease, many of the survivors who live have to live with neurological complications, said the CDC. About 97% of those infected with EEE do not experience any symptoms of the virus. When they do, one gets fever with or without chills and body aches, or severe neurologic disease in the worst-case scenario.
West Nile virus is the most prevalent mosquito transmitted disease in the continental United States Approximately 80 % of the people who contract the virus show no signs of the disease, while 20 % may develop fever or other symptoms. Of all the people infected, one in 150 will develop a severe, or even deadly illness.
Positive samples of EEE –containing mosquitoes have been 88 in Massachusetts this year principally in Plymouth and Worcester. This year alone, 299 samples of mosquito known to be West Nile positive have been identified across the state.