A beloved 51-year-old woman from New Hampshire has died from the mosquito-borne illness, Eastern Equine Encephalitis.
Diane Humphreys of Conway, fell ill with symptoms in August.
"She would have wanted to be remembered as a young, vibrant woman," her daughter, Jennifer Blackmar said.
In addition to being a vibrant, young woman, Humphrey's daughter and her daughter's boyfriend say she was a wonderful mom, wife, grandmother and friend.
She loved hiking, the NH mountains and animals.
Her family says their first clue she had contracted EEE came when she was diagnosed with a migraine at the ER. The symptoms only got worse.
"Then they took her to the hospital and she was experiencing meningitis-like symptoms, swelling of the brain," said Humphrey's daughter's boyfriend Alex Agudelo
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Humphrey was in a medically induced coma for about a month, the EEE was taking a toll on her nervous system.
"She did wake up from it a little bit, and she did move her hands," said Blackmar.
She died Thursday at a hospice in NH.
Her family says she was horseback riding around the time of contracting EEE.
However, how she became infected is still not known.
One thing is for certain, though, they say she was definitely bitten in New Hampshire due to the timing of her sickness.
NH Health Officials say there's no cure for EEE, so it's so important people take preventive measures.
"Unfortunately about 1/3 of EEE cases do end up dying from their illness. Among the people who recover, many do have neurological deficits," said Beth Daly from the NH Dept of Health and Human Services.
This is the first case of EEE in NH since 2009.
A second man from Hopkinton, NH, was diagnosed with the disease in September, but has since recovered.
