Systematic Veterinary Virology

PUBLIC HEALTH HAZARD

• EEE, WEE and VEE can cause human infections. EEE virus causes severe disease in humans with a mortality rate of 30–70% and a high frequency of permanent sequelae in patients who survive.
• WEE is usually mild in adult humans, but can be a severe disease in children. Human infections occur from bites of infected mosquitoes.
• Transmission can also occur by exposure to aerosolized infective material.
• In human beings, a flu-like syndrome predominates accompanied by high fever and frontal headache. Human deaths may occur in the young or the aged.