KNOX COUNTY, Tenn. — The Knox County Health Department said Monday six children have been hospitalized from a mosquito-borne illness, La Crosse, in the last nine weeks.
"Signs and symptoms can vary widely," said Dr. Megan Edwards, the Public Health Officer for Knox County. "For every one infection, there's probably about 1,000 people who don't have any symptoms. For those who develop symptoms, it's usually fever, lethargy and change in mental status."
The health department said La Crosse is rare and also has a lower mortality rate than other mosquito-borne diseases like West Nile.
"We don't want kids and adults to be afraid to go outside," Edwards said. "What we do want is for them to be able to be aware of this condition."
Awareness is top-of-mind for parents like Michelle Ferguson, who watched her son suffer from a severe form of the virus in the summer of 2020.
"He was in therapy for years," Ferguson said. "He actually just recently got out of therapy. It was very traumatic, and he was very sick. I would say it was torture"
Ferguson's family spent the day at a church event and said the whole family got bitten by mosquitoes. However, her son Bentley, had a lasting headache that took a turn for the worse.
Ferguson said she'd never seen a seizure, much less her own 5-year-old son have one. She rushed him to the emergency room where they took him to the hospital for a spinal tap.
Bentley had La Crosse encephalitis, or swelling of the brain, from the mosquito-borne illness. He was also suffering from multiple seizures.
"They ended up putting him into a medically induced coma and he kept him in that for seven days," she said. "They placed a feeding tube. We just kept hoping he was gonna get better and just, it seemed like every day he was just getting worse and worse. I personally did not think he was going to make it."
Bentley did eventually wake up, much to his family's joy and relief. He had to keep the feeding tube when he went home, and his mom said his recovery lasted years.
Now, every summer, she keeps track of case numbers. They spike in East Tennessee and surrounding Appalachian areas.
"Put bug spray on your children," Ferguson said. "If they have a headache or anything that looks abnormal, monitor them. "
Now, Bentley is much better. However, his mom said there are long-term effects from brain swelling and seizures.
"My son does have some long-term neurological deficits from this," she said. "It's not just something that is torture at that time. It can affect their life permanently. It's something to take seriously."
About La Crosse virus and prevention
The Knox County Health Department said Knox County has not seen this number of cases since 2020. The health department said rain may have led to increased mosquito activity this summer.
Mosquitos carrying the La Crosse virus lay eggs in trees, so wooded areas have a higher chance of having mosquitos with the virus.
"They don't like to go more than about 5,000 yards from where they hatched," Edwards said. "You're not gonna get this mosquito out in the middle of a field, but you may encounter it within about 500 yards of wooded areas or areas with small collections of water."
Prevention is as simple as wearing bug spray, dressing in longer layers to cover exposed skin, and dumping out standing water.
"You prevent West Nile the same way you prevent Triple E, the same way you prevent things like La Crosse, those prevention things that we talk about at the beginning of the summer," Edwards said.
