Rare and deadly mosquito-borne virus infection puts Massachusetts towns on alert

A rare but deadly disease spread by mosquitoes is causing a Massachusetts town to close its parks and fields every night. Four other cities are urging people to avoid going outdoors at night.

They are concerned about Eastern Equine Encephalitis. Health officials announced last week that an 80-year-old man had contracted the disease, the first human case found in Massachusetts since 2020.

Yesterday, the virus claimed the life of a man in Hampstead, New Hampshire, which is near the Massachusetts border.

The city of Plymouth, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) southeast of Boston, announced Friday that it was closing public outdoor recreation facilities from dusk to dawn each day after a horse in the city was infected with disease.

Meanwhile, state health officials have warned that a cluster of four towns south of Worcester – Douglas, Oxford, Sutton and Webster – are at “critical risk” after an Oxford man contracted the virus.

State and local health officials urged people in those cities to avoid peak mosquito-bite times by ending outdoor activities by 6 p.m. through Sept. 30 and then by 5 p.m. thereafter until the first hard frost.

They also recommend that people in Massachusetts use mosquito repellent when outdoors and drain any standing water around their homes.

Oxford City Manager Jennifer Callahan wrote in a memo that the family of the man who contracted the virus in mid-August had contacted her office.

“They want people to be aware that this is an extremely serious disease with terrible physical and emotional consequences, regardless of whether the person manages to live,” Callahan wrote.

She said the infected person often told his family that he had never been bitten by mosquitoes. But even before he became symptomatic, he told them he had been bitten. She said the man remains hospitalized and “bravely fighting” the virus.

Callahan said the family urges people to take public health advice seriously and do everything they can to protect themselves.

The presence of the virus in Massachusetts this year was confirmed last month in a mosquito sample and has since been found in other mosquitoes in the state. In a 2019 outbreak, there were six deaths among 12 confirmed cases in Massachusetts. The outbreak continued the following year with five more cases and one more death.

There are no vaccines or treatment for EEE.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that while rare, EEE is very serious and about 30 percent of people infected die. Symptoms include fever, headache, vomiting, diarrhea and seizures.

People who survive are often permanently disabled, and few fully recover, Massachusetts authorities say. The disease is widespread in birds, and although humans and other mammals can catch EEE, they do not spread the disease.

The CDC says only a few cases of EEE are reported in the U.S. each year, with most infections found in the eastern and Gulf Coast states.

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