Public health officials know that eastern equine encephalitis, also known as EEE, is deadly. After all, it killed a 41-year-old New Hampshire man on Aug. 19.
But the level of danger posed by the mosquito-borne virus still needs to be determined, Northeastern University health experts say.
Eastern equine encephalitis has a mortality rate of 30%, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, Larry Han, an assistant professor in public health and health sciences at Northeastern, says the death rate may be higher.
“If you look at case reports in Massachusetts from the last 10 years, in some seasons it’s over 50%,” says Han, who has a background in statistical and machine learning methods and infectious diseases.
“If you stratify by certain risk factors like age, the mortality rate could be even larger than 50%,” he says.
