Danbury Resident Tests Positive For West Nile Virus

DANBURY, CT — A Danbury resident has tested positive for Connecticut's first case of West Nile virus this season, the state announced Friday. The resident is recovering after becoming ill with encephalitis during the third week of August.

Also Friday, the Connecticut Department of Public Health announced that a person who was diagnosed with Eastern Equine Encephalitis has died and a second case of the infection has been confirmed.

The person who died was an adult resident of East Lyme, and was hospitalized with encephalitis in late August, according to a news release from the department. The death marks the state's first fatal human EEE case since 2013.

The second person to be stricken with the disease is an adult resident of Old Lyme who became ill during the second week of September with encephalitis and remains hospitalized.

States throughout the Northeast are experiencing an active EEE season. Ten human cases have been identified in Massachusetts, including two fatalities, and three human cases have been identified in Rhode Island, including one fatality. About a third of people who develop EEE die, and there is no treatment for the illness.

"Using insect repellent, covering bare skin and avoiding being outdoors from dusk to dawn are effective ways to help keep you from being bitten by mosquitoes," health department Commissioner Renee Coleman Mitchell said in the news release. "Mosquitoes continue to be active until the first heavy frost."