Mosquitoes In East Lyme Test Positive For EEE

EAST LYME, CT — Mosquitoes in East Lyme have tested positive for Eastern equine encephalitis, health officials said late Monday afternoon.

With three Connecticut EEE-related deaths and one person who contracted EEE currently ill with encephalitis, the cautions about being outdoors from dusk to dawn remain.

Ledge Light Health District the latest positive test results are added to those infected mosquitoes found in Groton, Waterford, Lyme, Old Lyme, Ledyard, North Stonington and Stonington.

The mosquitoes are primarily bird-biting. But given EEE is a rare but serious disease caused by a virus that is transmitted by mosquitoes, and which has resulted in three deaths in the Lymes, residents still need to take precautions. This even when the temperature Saturday morning around the shoreline was in the high 40s. Officials have said they won't be gone until the "first hard frost."

On Tuesday, Oct. 1, the state Department of Public Health confirmed that an East Haddam resident is the third Connecticut resident to die from the Eastern equine encephalitis virus. This person, who is between 60 and 69 years of age, became ill during the second week of September and died the third week.

The state health department also learned that the CDC has also confirmed EEE to be the cause of illness for a resident of Colchester who became ill during the third week of August and who remains hospitalized. This person is between 40 and 49 years of age. An East Lyme and an Old Lyme resident have already died as a result of the EEE virus.

“Sadly, this has been an unprecedented year for EEE activity in Connecticut,” Dr. Matthew Cartter, the DPH State Epidemiologist, said. Cartter said before this year, there had been only one human case of EEE in Connecticut, and that was in 2013.

Dr. Theodore Andreadis of the CT Agricultural Experiment Station told Patch that the latest cases were in the "general vicinity" of the two previous cases where two elderly people died after contracting the virus.

He said areas in and around the Lymes are suspect and that the two new cases are "younger" than the two people who died after developing encephalitis. One, Patrica Shaw, was 77 and the other was 70. Andreadis said the elderly and very young children are more likely to contract the virus after being bitten by an infected mosquito.

Andreadis said this year’s "major outbreak" might be mitigated next year with additional funding to increase the mosquito monitoring program.

With trapping, he said, there’s "very few surprises: we can almost always detect the virus." But this year has been "unusual because we didn't have a presence in that vicinity," he said, referring to areas near the Lymes, Montville, Salem, and Colchester.

He said CAES is "looking to increase our testing and trapping program and add new locations" and will ask the governor for "more funding to increase trapping."

Officials say the risk of EEE will not be gone until the first "hard frost.”

It takes four to 10 days after the bite of an infected mosquito to develop symptoms of EEE. Severe cases of EEE virus infection result in encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain. Approximately a third of patients who develop EEE die and there is no specific treatment for EEE.

State health officials advise against unnecessary trips into mosquito breeding grounds and marshes as the mosquitoes that transmit EEE virus are associated with freshwater swamps and are most active at dusk and dawn.

Overnight camping or other substantial outdoor exposure in freshwater swamps in Connecticut should be avoided. Even though the temperatures are getting cooler, mosquitoes continue to be active until the first heavy frost and residents should continue to take measures to prevent mosquito bites. Pesticide spraying to kill adult mosquitoes is unlikely to be effective at this time of year when it is cooler at night and mosquitoes are less active.