[Music] Health officials in New England are warning residents about the rare mosquito born Eastern equin en sephtis known as Triple E it is a mouthful some parts of Massachusetts are spraying for mosquitoes to lower the risk just yesterday New Hampshire recorded its first death from the virus since 2014 41-year-old Steven Perry's family says he died after a week long hospitalization now this mosquito born illness can cause flu like symptoms it is deadly for about a third of people who develop it the threat usually subsides with the first Frost of the year which puts mosquitoes into hibernation Dr W J joins us now he's a hospital epidemiologist and director of infection prevention at Mount siai uh downtown here in New York City great to have you with us and we know you don't want to scare people too much but this is so serious um are the patent of cases so far typical so what we normally see over a summer or is there an added level of alarm right now so it's not unusual we do see around this time of the year we do see people very few people across the country get infected with Eastern qu and saitis virus um and that and and then the mortality or death rate is about 20 30% which unfortunately in this case was uh was uh the result uh but this mosquito and this disease does occur in the eastern part of of United States and we mentioned the risk will ease once the weather cools down but right now people are actually really scared about this especially since everybody seems to be getting mosquito bites we're we're looking at uh at spending a lot of time Outdoors at least for the next couple of days um so who is most at risk and given the that for a third of people it's actually deadly at what point if you get a mosquito bite and you have some of these flu like symptoms should you be concerned so I I think uh and and all those questions are are very very important I think prevention is the best cure in this situation where we can actually prevent moscito bites you can prevent them by using insector repellant especially if you're going to to the woods or to hiking I think the best practice really would be if people are out and about to to make sure that they using some sort of protection from mosites themselves and then people who are high risk elderly usually are are in this category but it uh this uh this virus in itself again being very rare has occurred in younger individuals as well although the risk of death is higher in in the elderly all right Dr J thanks so much thanks doc thank you