overwhelmed state public health offices, said Candice Hoffmann, an agency spokeswoman.Officials in eight states and the District of Columbia have so far taken up the offer: Maryland, Ohio, North Carolina, South Carolina, Vermont, Maine, Florida and Arizona.During last year’s EEE outbreak, the CDC provided about $700,000 in emergency funding and technical assistance to Rhode Island, Indiana, Michigan and Massachusetts, on top of roughly $18 million it provided to states for annual vector-borne disease surveillance, Hoffmann said.In Michigan, where six of the state’s 10 cases of EEE last year proved fatal, officials this summer have launched a pilot program to improve the state’s response to mosquito-borne illnesses.Ned Walker, a medical.