What threat does EEE virus pose in the Valley?

Mosquito-borne disease is rare but cases have been found in Carbon and Monroe counties

A potentially deadly mosquito-borne virus has popped up in the Poconos and Carbon County. And the only known human case of it in Pennsylvania was treated last year at Lehigh Valley Health Network.

While state health officials are urging Lehigh Valley residents to educate themselves about the eastern equine encephalitis virus, they note that the disease is rare and the likelihood of people in the area contracting it is low.

The virus, which is also called EEE or Triple E, killed seven people across the country this year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention update. And a week ago, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture announced it found an infected wild pheasant in Monroe County and infected horses in Carbon County.

Despite the news last week that animals in nearby counties were found infected with the virus, that isn’t cause for alarm, state and local health officials say. Colleen Connolly, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Environmental Protection, which tracks infected mosquitoes, said mosquitoes that carry and spread EEE typically don’t travel far from their habitats.

EEE is an extremely rare but dangerous virus, transmitted through mosquito bites. An average of seven human cases typically are recorded every year, but this year, 28 cases have been reported to the CDC.

While 2019 has had an unusually high number of cases, that hasn’t been true in Pennsylvania. In the last decade, Pennsylvania has had one case, in 2018, which was reported by Lehigh Valley Health Network, said Dr. Luther Rhodes, the network’s chief of hospital epidemiology. He did not know which county the case came from and the Health Department does not release information on individual cases.

Most of the cases this year have been from Florida, Massachusetts, New York and North Carolina, according to the CDC.

The symptoms include a high fever, stiff neck, headache and lack of energy, and typically show up three to 10 days after a mosquito bite. The illness lasts one to two weeks but is more serious if the virus affects the central nervous system.

Most people who are bitten by an infected mosquito don’t get the virus, but 4-5% of those people do, the CDC said. And nearly a third of people who get sick with the infection die.

While horses can get vaccinated against the EEE virus, there’s no such vaccine for people, Rhodes said.

Older people, he said, are more likely to get sick from an infected mosquito.

The DEP planned to spray parts of Carbon County for mosquitoes Tuesday but scrap

ped the plan when not enough mosquitoes capable of spreading the virus were found to warrant spraying. The agency says it will continue monitoring mosquitoes in that region.

To prevent the disease, health experts suggest wearing long sleeves, using bug repellent outside and dumping any standing water that has accumulated in yards.

The recent increase in EEE cases across the country may be due to a combination of rising prevalence of the disease and heightened awareness of it that has improved reporting of cases, said Vicky Kistler, director of the Allentown Health Bureau.

While some researchers point to the the increasingly warm climate for the rise in diseases transmitted by bugs, Rhodes said that’s mostly speculation.

“It’s not at all clear why,” he said.

However, warm weather generally is conducive to mosquitoes, which go away when the weather cools.

While EEE recently captured the attention of the country, the threat is greater for more common and equally serious diseases transmitted by bugs, such as Lyme disease and West Nile virus, Kistler and Rhodes said.

Last year, 130 people in Pennsylvania got sick with the West Nile virus. But this year, only two cases have been reported. Like EEE, it is a serious disease contracted from mosquitoes, and it can be prevented the same way, Rhodes said.

As with the EEE virus, most people don’t develop symptoms after getting bitten by a mosquito infected with West Nile virus. One in 5 who get sick can develop headaches, body aches, joint pains, vomiting, diarrhea or rashes. A smaller percentage, 1 in 150 people, can develop severe illnesses, such as inflammation of the brain or of the membrane surrounding the brain and spinal cord.

“Specifically late afternoon to late morning, that’s when mosquitoes that can carry West Nile or EEE most likely to bite,” Rhodes said.

“You can’t get obsessed with these kinds of things,” Kistler added, advising people to take precautions but not worry too much about it.