Tagged: Eastern Equine Encephalitis

Vermont officials are reviewing the state mosquito monitoring program following two deaths from a rare disease carried by the insects.

The Vermont Health Department says efforts to control mosquitoes in Brandon and Whiting are working, but it doesn't eliminate the threat of Eastern Equine Encephalitis.

Earlier this month the state used aircraft to spray pesticides in Whiting and Brandon and the number of mosquitoes captured in traps in the area has been cut in half.

But Health Commissioner Dr. Harry Chen says that while the risk of EEE infection in Vermont has been reduced, there is no way to kill enough mosquitoes to eliminate the threat.

The Vermont Health Department is planning to begin aerial spraying as part of a broader effort to control mosquitoes in an area of Rutland and Addison counties where two people were sickened, and one person died, from the state's first cases of Eastern Equine Encephalitis.

On Wednesday the Health Department identified the person who died as Richard Hollis Breen, an 87-year-old Brandon man.

The death certificate released by the Health Department said Breen had been sick with the disease for five days before his death Tuesday at Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington.

One of two people in Vermont infected with the mosquito-borne virus Eastern Equine Encephalitis has died.
The Vermont Health Department says 87-year-old Richard H. Breen of Brandon, who once served as head of the Vermont Principals' Association, is the state's first victim of Eastern Equine Encephalitis.