Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) has been diagnosed either serologically o
r by virus isolation. Until now, the recovery of EEE virus has been delegat
ed to reference laboratories with the expertise and resources needed to amp
lify the virus in a susceptible vertebrate host and/or to isolate and ident
ify the virus in cell culture. We report a case in which EEE virus was reco
vered directly from a patient's cerebrospinal fluid in A549 and MRC-5 cell
cultures. Many clinical virology laboratories routinely use these cells to
recover adenovirus, herpes simplex virus, and enterovirus. To the best of o
ur knowledge, this is the first report of isolation of EEE virus in A549 ce
ll culture. This report demonstrates the possibility of recovery of EEE vir
us in cell culture without the necessity of bioamplification or maintaining
unusual cell lines.