The virus spread by mosquitoes is rare, but serious: about 30 percent of people with the virus die, and many survivors have ongoing neurological problems.
A rare but deadly disease spread by mosquitoes has nearly a dozen Massachusetts communities on alert, prompting some towns to close parks after dusk, restrict outdoor activities and reschedule public events.
Massachusetts health officials this month confirmed the state’s first human case of the eastern equine encephalitis virus this year — a man in his 80s exposed in Worcester County, west of Boston. Ten communities are now designated at high or critical risk for the virus, health officials said Saturday. Plymouth, about 40 miles south of Boston, closed all public parks and fields from dusk until dawn, when mosquitoes are most active. Nearby, Oxford banned all outdoor activities on town property after 6 p.m.
“We have not seen an outbreak of EEE for four years in Massachusetts,” Robbie Goldstein, the state’s department of public health commissioner, said in a statement. “We need to use all our available tools to reduce risk and protect our communities. We are asking everyone to do their part.”…..
