Eastern Equine Encephalomyelitis in Massachusetts in 1955

Abstract

THE virus of eastern equine encephalomyelitis, on invasion of the human central nervous system, can result in an acute febrile illness, with rapid development of coma and convulsions, that is frequently fatal, occasionally allows survival with permanent brain damage, or less often subsides, with complete recovery.This agent was first demonstrated to be pathogenic for man in the course of an epidemic of 38 cases in eastern Massachusetts in the late summer and autumn of 1938.^{1 2 3} During the next ten years small groups of cases were recognized in coastal regions of Texas and Louisiana,^{4 5 6} and in 1948–49 a circumscribed epidemic . . .