By: Hellen Zaboulani

On Friday, the New York State’s Health Department announced that a person has been hospitalized with Eastern Equine Encephalitis (E.E.E.)— a rare but serious mosquito-borne illness. As reported by the NY Times, it is the first reported human case in NY since 2015. The infection was reported in Ulster County, roughly 100 miles north of NYC. There is no vaccine for the disease, and no known cure. Many people bitten by an infected mosquito never develop any symptoms. For those who do, symptoms can include headaches, fevers, chills and vomiting. More severe cases of the disease can lead to seizures, comas and encephalitis, or swelling of the brain.

About a third of reported cases are deadly, and over 50% result in long-term neurological complications.

NYS officials are urging residents to take precautions to avoid getting mosquito bites. Officials say the best way to prevent sickness is to avoid getting mosquito bites, by taking precautions including wearing long pants and long sleeves, applying strong mosquito repellent, staying indoors around dusk time, putting screens on windows and doors, and getting rid of any standing water around yards and homes.

“Even though temperatures are getting cooler, mosquito-borne illnesses are still a risk, and New Yorkers must be cautious,” Dr. James McDonald, New York’s health commissioner, said in a news release on Friday. Mosquitoes will persist until the weather is cold enough for standing water to freeze, as they breed in the water. In many areas of NY, this is not slated to happen till mid October. The virus is only spread by bites from infected mosquitoes–it cannot spread from other infected people, nor by sick animals.

Per the New York Times, over the summer, there were at least six human cases of the virus reported across the country, most of them in the Northeast, as per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. States with incidents include Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Wisconsin. Massachusetts saw four cases reported there, per the C.D.C. In New Hampshire, one person died from the virus in late August. In 2019, there had been 38 recorded cases of E.E.E. and 12 deaths in the United States — though none of them were in NY. It was the largest outbreak of the virus in over 50 years. Annually, there were about nine infections on average recorded in the U.S. from 2003 to 2023.

New York’s last recorded human case of E.E.E. was in 2015— when there were three people infected in the northern part of the state. Two of the infected persons died, per the New York Times. This virus most commonly inflicts horses, in which 90% of times the virus results in the horse’s death. In August, NYS health officials said that several horses had been infected with E.E.E. As of late August, at least two horses had died after becoming infected, one of them in Ulster County.

Eastern equine encephalitis is one of several mosquito-borne illnesses that have spread across the country this year. As of Sept. 17, about 660 people in the U.S. were infected with the West Nile virus, which is much more common than E.E.E. but less deadly, the NY Times reported.