CNN
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A Massachusetts town has closed its municipal parks and squares to visitors overnight due to an increased risk of potentially deadly mosquito-borne encephalitis, town officials said.
The city of Plymouth, about 40 miles southeast of Boston, announced the closure on Friday due to a high risk of an outbreak of the extremely rare eastern equine encephalitis, city officials said in a news release.
The disease is transmitted to humans by mosquito bites and has a mortality rate of 33% to 70%, with most deaths occurring within two to 10 days after symptoms begin, according to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.
“The recent diagnosis of EEE infection in an infected horse in Plymouth has initially raised the town’s EEE risk level to high,” the town of Plymouth said in a release.
The state health department said in a news release that a man in his 80s infected in Worcester County on Aug. 16 marked the state’s first reported case of EEE this year and the first since 2020, leading health officials to raise the risk level of the disease in nearby areas.
“EEE is a rare but serious illness and a public health concern,” Massachusetts Surgeon General Robbie Goldstein said in a statement. “We remind residents of the need to protect themselves from mosquito bites, especially in areas of the state where EEE activity is occurring.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 30% of people who become infected with EEE die, and many who survive the infection live with ongoing neurological problems.
The disease is extremely rare, with an average of only 11 cases of EEE reported each year in the United States, according to the CDC.
According to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, there was an outbreak of EEE in Massachusetts in 2019 and 2020, with 17 reported cases of EEE and seven deaths.
Public health officials and the Massachusetts Agricultural Resources Agency announced plans Saturday to use aerial spraying to eliminate mosquitoes in the Plymouth County area and truck-mounted spraying in parts of Worcester County, according to a press release.
By Saturday, 10 Massachusetts communities had high or significant EEE risk levels.
At least eight municipalities, including Boston, are “currently considered at high risk” for mosquitoes that carry the West Nile virus, the Massachusetts Department of Health announced Friday.
A spokesman for Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Saturday that Fauci was recuperating at home after being hospitalized with West Nile virus.