A rare but deadly mosquito virus infection has spread in Massachusetts

A uncommon however lethal illness unfold by mosquitoes has one city in Massachusetts closing its parks and fields every night. 4 different cities are urging individuals to keep away from going open air at evening.

They’re involved about jap equine encephalitis. State well being officers introduced final week a person in his 80s had caught the illness, the primary human case present in Massachusetts since 2020.

The city of Plymouth, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) southeast of Boston, introduced Friday that it’s closing public out of doors recreation services from nightfall till daybreak every day after a horse within the city was contaminated with the illness.

In the meantime, state well being officers warned {that a} cluster of 4 cities south of Worcester — Douglas, Oxford, Sutton and Webster — are at “crucial threat” after a person from Oxford caught the virus.

State and native well being officers urged individuals in these cities to keep away from the height mosquito biting instances by ending out of doors actions by 6 p.m. till Sept. 30 after which by 5 p.m. after that, till the primary exhausting frost.

In addition they advocate that individuals throughout Massachusetts use mosquito repellents when open air and drain any standing water round their properties.

Jennifer Callahan, Oxford’s city supervisor, wrote in a memo that the household of the person who caught the virus in mid August had reached out to her workplace.

“They need individuals to bear in mind that is a particularly severe illness with horrible bodily and emotional penalties, regardless if the particular person manages to reside,” Callahan wrote.

She stated the contaminated particular person had typically recounted to his household how he by no means received bitten by mosquitoes. However simply earlier than he turned symptomatic, he instructed them he had been bitten. She stated the person stays hospitalized and is “courageously battling” the virus.

Callahan stated the household is urging individuals to take the general public well being recommendation significantly and to do their utmost to guard themselves.

The presence of the virus in Massachusetts this yr was confirmed final month in a mosquito pattern, and has been present in different mosquitoes throughout the state since then. In a 2019 outbreak, there have been six deaths amongst 12 confirmed instances in Massachusetts. The outbreak continued the next yr with 5 extra instances and one other loss of life.

There aren’t any vaccines or therapy for EEE.

The U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention says that though uncommon, EEE may be very severe and about 30% of people that turn out to be contaminated die. Signs embody fever, headache, vomiting, diarrhea and seizures.

Individuals who survive are sometimes completely disabled, and few fully get better, Massachusetts authorities say. The illness is prevalent in birds, and though people and another mammals can catch EEE, they don’t unfold the illness.

The CDC says just a few instances of EEE are reported within the U.S. every year, with most infections discovered within the jap and Gulf Coast states.