Rare but deadly viral infection caused by mosquito has Massachusetts towns on alert

They are concerned about Eastern equine encephalitis. State health officials announced last week that an 80-year-old man had contracted the disease, the first human case detected in Massachusetts since 2020.

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

State and local health officials have urged residents in those cities to avoid peak mosquito-biting periods by ending outdoor activities by 6 p.m. through Sept. 30, and then by 5 p.m. after that, until the first hard frost.

They also recommend that Massachusetts residents 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, whether the person survives or not,” Callahan wrote.

She said the infected person had often told his family that he had never been bitten by mosquitoes. But just before he developed symptoms, he told them he had been bitten. She said the man remained in hospital and was “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 virus’s presence in Massachusetts this year was confirmed last month in a mosquito sample and has since been detected in other mosquitoes across the state. In an outbreak in 2019, six deaths were recorded out of 12 confirmed cases in Massachusetts. The outbreak continued the following year with five more cases and one more death.

There is no vaccine or treatment for EEE.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that although rare, EEE is a very serious disease and that about 30% of people infected die. Symptoms include fever, headache, vomiting, diarrhea and seizures.

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Those who survive are often permanently disabled, and few recover fully, Massachusetts officials said. The disease is common among birds, and while humans and some other mammals can catch EEE, they do not transmit it.

According to the CDC, only a few cases of EEE are reported in the United States each year, with most infections occurring in the Eastern and Gulf Coast states.