New York is joining the states in the Northeast US warning about the eastern equine encephalitis virus after a New Yorker died from the disease.

New York's first person to contract Eastern equine encephalitis -- or EEE -- in almost a decade has died, the governor's office announced Monday as the state declared the virus an "imminent threat to public health.

The New York resident who tested positive for the mosquito-borne EEE virus has died, prompting state health officials to declare an "imminent threat to the public for EEE."