Mosquitoes Bearing EEE Virus Are In CT Now. What's The Plan?

CONNECTICUT —A mosquito in Connecticut has tested positive for the Eastern Equine Encephalitis virus for the first time this season.

The mosquito was trapped at Stonington High School on August 3, according to the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station.

This is early in the season to be finding EEE-bearing mosquitoes, according to virologist and medical entomologist Philip Armstrong, who runs the statewide mosquito trapping and testing program at CAES. That's a "cause for some concern," he told Patch.

Armstrong said he is sending his teams back out to increase the state's trapping efforts in the areas affected.

"We should have a much better sense of what the risk is in that in the coming weeks," he said.

CAES maintains a network of 108 mosquito-trapping stations in 87 towns throughout the state. Normally, mosquito traps are set Monday – Thursday nights at each site every ten days on a rotating basis and then twice a week after detection of a virus.

There were also seven mosquitoes that tested positive for West Nile Virus in the latest round of testing. That brings the number to 28 so far this season, but there have been no human cases reported.

EEE is a more rare (4-8 cases reported per year in the U.S.), and much more serious disease than WNV. The latter has gotten more press because its virus-bearing bugs go where the people are, in the more densely populated urban and suburban parts of the state.

Last year, CAES detected WNV in 82 mosquito samples from 23 towns. The majority of WNV activity was detected in densely populated urban and suburban regions in Fairfield, Hartford and New Haven Counties.

EEE is found in the freshwater swamps and more rural areas, according to Armstrong, and had a big year here in 2019. The virus was detected in 28 communities in Connecticut with a total of 122 positive mosquito samples. There were four confirmed human cases of EEE and three people died. Most virus activity occurred in Middlesex, New London, and Windham Counties, consistent with prior years.

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"About a third of the people that develop encephalitis die from the infection and many of those that survive suffer from lifelong brain damage," Armstrong said.

CAES is calculating the end of the mosquito season won't be until the end of October, and with no vaccine yet approved for use against EEE virus nor West Nile virus, prevention is everything.

"Now is the time to take precautions against mosquito bites," said Jason White, director of CAES. "We encourage everyone to take simple measures such as wearing mosquito repellent and covering bare skin, especially during dusk and dawn when mosquitoes are most active."

To reduce the risk of being bitten by mosquitoes residents should:

• Minimize time spent outdoors between dusk and dawn when mosquitoes are most active.
• Be sure door and window screens are tight-fitting and in good repair.
• Wear shoes, socks, long pants, and a long-sleeved shirt when outdoors for long periods of time, or when mosquitoes are more active. Clothing should be light colored and made of tightly woven materials that keep mosquitoes away from the skin.
• Use mosquito netting when sleeping outdoors or in an unscreened structure and to protect small babies when outdoors.
• Consider the use of mosquito repellents recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), such as ones containing DEET, picaridin, oil of lemon eucalyptus, IR3535, or 2-undecanone, and apply according to directions, when it is necessary to be outdoors.