Three Michigan residents have died of a rare mosquito-borne virus called Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) virus, Michigan health officials said. Four more residents of the state have been diagnosed with this disease. And this is happening against the backdrop of the largest outbreak on record in decades.
Those who live in all eight affected counties - Kalamazoo, Cass, Van Buren, Berrien, Barry, St. Joseph, Genesee and Lapier counties - are strongly advised to consider canceling or rescheduling outdoor events that take place at dusk or after sunset. especially those involving children, according to the State Department of Health and Human Services.
This can include activities such as sports evening activities or outdoor music activities. According to a press release from the Department of Health, such "excessive care should be taken to protect public health until the first bitter frost of the year."
“Michigan is currently experiencing the worst outbreak of equine encephalitis in a decade,” said Dr. Jonei Khaldun, MDHHS's chief medical officer and chief assistant health officer. "The ongoing human and animal disease and the severity of the disease illustrate the importance of taking precautions against mosquito bites."
EEE is one of the deadliest mosquito-borne viruses in the United States. One in three people infected with this virus dies. The only way to prevent this is to avoid mosquito bites.
Mosquitoes are getting worse every year. The types of insects that carry diseases are common throughout most of the United States. But luckily, science has found clever ways to kill these pesky pests.
Apply insect repellents that contain the active ingredient DEET or another US EPA registered product to exposed skin or clothing and always follow the manufacturer's directions for use.
Wear long-sleeved shirts and long pants when outdoors. Apply insect repellent to clothing to prevent stings. Keep windows and doors closed to help keep mosquitoes outside.
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Use mains and / or fans over outdoor dining areas. Also remember, stagnant water is one of the main breeding grounds for mosquitoes. Therefore, make sure that in your place of residence there are no old, abandoned containers of water (buckets or other utensils, old tread tires, in which water accumulates, puddles and abandoned pools).
Editorial comment
Eastern equine encephalomyelitis is one of the most severe viral infections, with a mortality rate of up to 75%. After an asymptomatic incubation period of 15 - 40 days, the disease appears as if suddenly, manifested by a sharp increase in temperature and neurological symptoms: drowsiness / fatigue, irritability / anxiety, vomiting / diarrhea, muscle pain, turning into convulsions, coma.
Death usually occurs 2–10 days after symptoms start, but can occur much later. During autopsy, extensive foci of necrosis and infiltrates from white blood cells are found in the brain of the deceased, therefore, even after an apparent recovery, these foci remain and, after a few years, people still die. Therefore, as USA Today correctly writes, every third person dies right away, but after a couple of years, three out of four die.
Thus, the disease is very serious and is now being diagnosed all over the east coast:
USA Today reports an outbreak in Michigan, Boston.com writes about an outbreak in Massachusetts, the BBC Russian service writes about Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Indiana and Ohio, and locals write about everything.
We have a very, very good idea of how the healthcare system works even in developed countries like the United States, so the official statistics from Michigan need to be multiplied by at least ten. That is, somewhere 20-30 people died there from EEE with a different diagnosis, another 100 people were cured of “flu”, “acute appendicitis” and other diseases well known to doctors, and another 500 people did not go anywhere at all and drank analgin. to clog myalgia and remove the temperature.
The Michigan Department of Health knows all this as well as we do, and therefore issues an emergency message to sit under lock and key until freezing - because of three dead, no one will raise such a boil, on average in the state, the same number of people die every day from domestic massacre.
Now we multiply the average number of cases obtained above by the 20 states shown in the picture and we get 500 X 20 = 10,000 people. This is the real approximate number of EEE patients now. For a flu epidemic in a population of 300 million, this is nothing, but EEE is HORSE encephalitis, that is, every human case is already nonsense.
And now let's add to this a strange epidemic killing dogs in Europe, some kind of parrot plague in Australia, as well as the recent explosion in the Novosibirsk Virological Center "Vector". Where exactly something exploded there - it is completely incomprehensible, maybe there a laboratory assistant went to the toilet and forgot to turn off the gas burner on which he was preparing coffee - but all the media diligently listed that this research institute stores Ebola, smallpox and everything else. only known to tabloid readers.
Of course, it is quite possible that a real leak occurred there and an unprecedented epidemic will begin in Novosibirsk in a couple of weeks, but it is also possible that anything can be attached to this explosion. For example, pour something into a city reservoir - and blame everything on the exploded laboratory.
Thus, analyzing this whole situation, we believe that someone acting at the global level has already begun to actively work with the topic of epidemics and in the near future there will be many reports of sudden deaths from some exotic “protein encephalitis” or “Australian cockroach flu”. And when there is a critical mass of such messages, then everything will begin.
Nevertheless, until this all begins, we recommend that our readers diligently avoid contact with mosquitoes - not everywhere in public health there are the same decent people as in Michigan who warn their citizens at least a little. Therefore, wherever our readers live, we recommend that everyone follow the advice published by Michigan.