Drew: Panic Unwarranted Regarding EEE-Infected Mosquitoes

MIDDLETOWN, CT — Middletown Mayor Dan Drew is urging residents to “be calm” amid recent reports of mosquitoes testing positive for Eastern Equine Encephalitis in Connecticut. Two Connecticut residents have died from EEE this year, including a 77-year-old woman from East Lyme on Sept. 19. Another person, an Old Lyme Resident, died earlier this week, according to state health officials.

After receiving a “significant number of calls” regarding EEE, Drew said that officials would be meeting on Thursday to discuss any possible changes in Middletown’s approach to EEE.

“First and most importantly – there is a lot of unwarranted panic about this illness that is outsized to the actual threat posed to anyone,” Drew wrote in a post on Facebook. “I’ll get into why a bit more below, but I want first to urge everyone to be calm and to remember that the odds of getting sick at all – let alone suffering serious consequences – are very slim.”

Read more from Drew’s post below:

We just concluded a meeting between my office, the Health Department (including our medical director who is a longtime MD), Recreation, General Counsel, BOE, and Public Works. We reviewed state epidemiological data and went over what other towns are doing in response to this and, after an hour of discussion, we spoke about the following facts and came unanimously came to the following conclusions:

-mosquitos are no longer breeding and more are dying each day

-EEE has existed all summer and has only reached the public consciousness recently

-whatever possibility for illness exists will be taken care of by the first heavy frost

-there are a few isolated EEE cases most years

-most people who suffer consequences are part of a vulnerable population (i.e., the elderly or very young)

-the vast majority of cases reported have been along the shore or the state’s eastern border concentrated within very specific areas within specific towns. Please see the map below, which demonstrates this point

-the City of Middletown will NOT spray to kill mosquitos; the consequences to people, wildlife, and pets vastly exceeds any benefit from doing so

-the City of Middletown will keep its public parks open and municipal activities will continue; privately-run leagues may cancel or postpone practices if they choose, but the city will not do so

-the same common-sense preventative measures you would always use for mosquitos apply now.

-the city has not tested for EEE and is not conducting testing right now; the state tests certain areas based on their experience and knowledge of epidemiology. If there is information they need to share with us, they will.

The state has put out guidelines consistent with what I’ve written above, but the large electronic signs along the highways are frightening people and so is media coverage. This is a roundabout way of saying that you are in no more danger now than you were most of the summer or in previous years. Keeping EEE in perspective, hundreds more people die each year from the flu.

We take any and every public health question seriously and will monitor this one, but we want to remind you that the danger to you and your loved ones is negligible and declining by the day.

Thank you.

DTD

Image via Mayor Dan Drew