MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — Vermont public health officials say they don't know why the state is seeing its first human cases of the rare, potentially fatal eastern equine encephalitis.
But they are committed to stopping its spread by killing the disease-transmitting mosquitoes. The disease has killed an elderly man and sickened another adult.
On Thursday, the Health Department began aerial spraying in two areas of Rutland and Addison counties, low-lying, swampy areas long known for mosquitoes. Officials had already begun ground spraying as part of an effort to kill the mosquitoes known to carry eastern equine encephalitis.
The threat from EEE and West Nile virus won't disappear until the first hard freeze kills the mosquitoes that spread them.
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