The Vermont Health Department is planning to begin aerial spraying as part of a broader effort to control mosquitoes in an area of Rutland and Addison counties where two people were sickened, and one person died, from the state’s first cases of Eastern Equine Encephalitis.
Today, the health department identified the person who died as 87-year-old Richard Hollis Breen of Brandon.
The death certificate said Breen had been sick with the disease for five days before his death Tuesday at Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington.
The Burlington Free Press says Breen was an educator who once served as head of the Vermont Principals’ Association.
EEE is spread by the bite of an infected mosquito. It can produce flu-like symptoms, and more severe cases can affect the central nervous system and can be fatal.