A fourth Michigan resident is dead after contracting Eastern Equine Encephalitis.

News Channel 3 in Western Michigan reports 79-year-old Stan Zalner of Battle Creek died Wednesday morning after being in a coma since contracting the virus in early September.

Rona Bagent told the station her father was sick for weeks, then hospitalized with severe flu-like symptoms. She said the family allowed him to pass because of the irreparable damage to his brain caused by the disease. Bagent also urged residents not to resist aerial spraying for mosquitoes, and to apply insect repellent.