Why the huge surge in EEE cases? Federal rules requiring quick sample disposal mean we may never know
A massive surge in human cases of Eastern equine encephalitis this autumn has raised urgent questions about whether the dangerous virus has changed. But federal regulations that are leading most states to quickly destroy any positive EEE samples they find will stymie future efforts to come up with any answers, worried arbovirus experts warned.
The World Reference Center for Emerging Viruses and Arboviruses has been trying to amass specimens from this year’s EEE outbreak to place in its repository, the world’s largest and a resource from which researchers worldwide draw. But because EEE has been deemed a select agent — those are pathogens that pose a bioterror threat — most state laboratories that find the virus in specimens from mosquitoes, birds, or mammals (including humans) must destroy the material within seven days. Only labs that are certified to handle select agents can retain samples past that time.
