The Vermont Department of Health announced over the last two weeks that mosquito populations in both Sudbury and Brandon had tested positive for the virus that causes Eastern Equine Encephalitis, known as EEE.
Though cases among humans remain uncommon, even in areas where the virus is detected, the virus can cause brain swelling, fever, muscle pain, and seizures, among other symptoms. Most healthy adults will recover fully within 2 weeks, but the disease can be fatal and can cause permanent neurological damage in survivors. There is no vaccine and no cure. Patients who contract EEE are generally treated for their symptoms only.
The best prevention is to limit exposure to mosquitos by wearing long sleeves and long pants when outdoors, using insect repellent, and avoiding outdoor activities at times when mosquitos are most active (dusk and night).
In September of 2012, a resident of Brandon, 87-year-old Richard Hollis Breen, succumbed to EEE, the first in Vermont to do so. Mr. Breen had been the first principal at Otter Valley Union High School in the 1960s. Forty-nine-year-old Scott Sgorbati of Sudbury also died of EEE that September.
Stephen Belcher, the interim President of the Otter Creek Watershed Insect Control District (OCWICD), which sprays for mosquitos in Brandon, Pittsford, Leicester, Goshen, Salisbury, and Proctor, wrote in an e-mail that OCWICD had not sprayed heavily earlier in the season because of the frequent rain and the low mosquito population. However, he indicated that OCWICD will be returning to its usual spraying schedule now that the weather is dryer.
Please visit heathvermont.gov for more information about EEE and its prevention.
