With the start of fall, you may be looking forward to venturing outdoors. But you also may have heard recent reports of dangerous mosquito-borne illnesses in the region.

"Everyone should get outdoors during this beautiful season, but do so safely," advises Elizabeth A. Talbot, MD, an infectious disease and international health specialist at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. "Yes, there is a risk of acquiring serious infections from mosquitos, but that risk can be substantially lowered," she said.

EEEV is rare in our region

Eastern Equine Encephalitis Virus (EEEV) is a rare but serious disease transmitted to people by infected mosquitos.

The last reported human EEEV infection in New Hampshire was in 2014, when the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) identified three human infections, including two fatalities. This year, the region has seen higher numbers of mosquitos testing positive for EEEV.

This August, the Departments of Health in Vermont, Massachusetts and New Hampshire all reported a human case of EEEV. The infected adult from Hampstead, New Hampshire, had to be hospitalized due to severe central nervous system disease and died of the illness.

What other diseases are mosquitos carrying this year?

"In New Hampshire, mosquitos transmit infections including Eastern Equine Encephalitis Virus, West Nile Virus (WNV), and Jamestown Canyon Virus (JCV)," said New Hampshire State Epidemiologist Benjamin P. Chan, MD, in the August 27th announcement of the Hampstead EEEV case.

A few weeks prior, the Vermont Department of Health reported that it had collected mosquitos that carried EEEV and WNV.

Infection in people is rare

The good news is that if you are bitten by a mosquito, you are at low risk of contracting any of these three diseases. One reason is that there are more than 40 species of mosquitos in New Hampshire and only a small number carry and spread mosquito-borne illnesses, according to the DHHS.

Although Vermont has some 45 mosquito species, only a few mosquito pools have tested positive with WNV or EEE, so risk of infection is low in that state, too.

What to look out for

But if you do get bitten by a mosquito, keep an eye out for symptoms.

The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) says most people with EEE or WNV have either no or mild symptoms and should recover from the illness unscathed.

But the 20 percent to 30 percent of people with WNV who do get symptoms may experience a fever, headache, weakness, pains in their muscles or joints, gastrointestinal issues, and even a rash. In rare cases, WNV can lead to severe neurological disease, causing paralysis, meningitis or brain damage.

EEEV has some similar characteristics but is more severe. People with EEEV also usually do not develop symptoms, but among those who do, the virus can result in febrile illness—with fever, chills, body aches and joint pain—or neurologic diseases such as meningitis or encephalitis, says the CDC.