United States: A person from New Hampshire has died after getting a rare virus spread by mosquitoes called eastern equine encephalitis. This is the first case of this virus in New Hampshire in ten years. The person, who was an adult, had serious problems with their nervous system and had to be hospitalized, according to state health officials.
Virus Severity and Risks
As reported by Health Day, About a third of people who suffer the severe complications of encephalitis from the virus die from the infections and of the survivors, they suffer from serious mental and physical disabilities or can say retardness for the rest of their lives. At this time there is no vaccine or antiviral available for the virus which can cause flu like symptoms and result in severe neurological disease accompanied by inflammation of the brain and its surrounding membranes.
“When it does cause an infection, it is very, very severe,” Ellison, immunologist and infectious disease specialist or expert at the University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Center of Worcester explained further about Hib, adding, “Although it’s a very rare infection, we have no treatment for it.” “Once a person is diagnosed with this, it is just — all the doctor can do is give palliative treatment and it can be fatal.”
Typical Case Numbers and Historical Data
Also there are typically about almost 11 human cases of the eastern equine encephalitis in the US per year according to the US Centers for the Disease Control and Prevention. Two of the three people who got infected in New Hampshire in the year 2014 died.
Virus Found in Local Wildlife
The health department said the virus has also been detected in one of the horse and there are multiple mosquitos batches in the New Hampshire this summer and the people in the Massachusetts and Vermont also have been infected and the mosquitoes that actually carry the virus can sometimes be found in the areas that actually used to be swamp land that has been converted but where they can still find habitat, Ellison said.
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