The disease has caused one death in New Hampshire and the virus has also been identified in humans in neighboring states, health officials said. One person has died in New Hampshire after contracting the mosquito-borne virus Eastern equine encephalitis, and two others in the Northeast have been infected this summer with the rare disease.
Health officials in the Northeast said that there was an elevated risk for the virus and urged residents to take precautions between dusk and dawn, when mosquitoes are most active.
What is E.E.E.?
The disease, like West Nile virus, is transmitted by mosquitoes, but E.E.E. has a higher death rate and is more rare. It is not contagious from person to person.
There is no treatment for the disease, and about 30 percent of people who get it die, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Many people who survive the illness have continuing neurological problems. A few cases crop up each year in the U.S.
Most of the cases occur in eastern or Gulf Coast states. The states that have reported cases this year said it was the first time that they had found the virus in residents in years.
The New Hampshire Department of Public Health said on Tuesday that an adult in Hampstead who had tested positive for the virus had died. It was the first reported infection in the state since 2014, when the Health Department identified three human cases, including two deaths.
Earlier this month, the Vermont Department of Health said that a man in his 40s from Chittenden County was the first person identified with the disease in the state since 2012, when two people contracted E.E.E. and died. The Chittenden County resident was hospitalized in July and left the hospital a week later.
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health said this month that a man in his 80s who was exposed in Worcester County was the first person identified with the disease in the state since 2020.
There have been around 115 cases of the virus in Massachusetts since 1938, when the virus was first identified, according to the state’s public health department. There was an outbreak in 2019 and 2020 that included 17 cases with seven fatalities.