Number of EEE cases this year is the most in 50 years

This year’s Eastern equine encephalitis — or EEE — outbreak is the worst in more than half a century, the CDC just confirmed. Seven states have reported a total of 28 cases so far, and activity could continue for several more weeks until mosquito populations — which transmit the disease — start to recede with the arrival of hard frosts, warns Scott Weaver, an arbovirus expert at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. The disease, which can be fatal among the most severe cases, has already killed nine people this year. EEE only became a notifiable disease in the U.S. in the early 1960s. The previous peak over that time frame came in 2005, when there were 21 cases.