| ■ Two die in Florida from mosquito-borne disease | 2010.07.30 |
| Two Florida residents have died from Eastern equine encephalitis, a mosquito-borne disease that is rare among humans but has infected a rising number of horses in the state, health officials said on Friday. Both deaths were in the Tampa area, where a woman died on July 1 and an infant died on Wednesday, the Hillsborough County Health Department said. The disease known as EEE causes brain inflammation. There is no vaccine for humans. "It's a fairly rare disease," said Steve Huard, spokesman for the Hillsborough health department. Only a few human cases a year are reported in the United States, mostly in Atlantic and Gulf coast areas, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But the disease kills 33 percent of its victims and survivors often have significant brain damage, the CDC said. |