Human Infection With Venezuelan Equine Encephalomyelitis Virus

The importance of the viruses of western¹and of eastern equine encephalomyelitis²in the causation of human disease is now well established. Meyer,³shortly after the discovery of the western equine virus in 1930, described the occurrence of encephalitis in 3 persons who had cared for sick horses and he voiced the suspicion that human infections with this virus may occur. In 1938 Eklund and Blumstein,⁴investigating the occurrence of 6 human cases of encephalitis in Minnesota, found neutralizing antibodies to the western virus in the blood serum in 1 of 3 cases tested, and in the same year Howitt⁵isolated the virus from the brain in a human case of encephalitis. In 1941 the largest epidemic of encephalitis ever recorded occurred in and around North Dakota,⁶which alone had 1,080 cases with ninety-six deaths, and the causative agent was shown to be the