Deadly Mosquito Virus in Massachusetts: What We Know

Several towns in Massachusetts have taken measures to fight the spread of a deadly mosquito-borne virus after one man was hospitalized with it—here is everything we know so far.
It emerged last week that a man in his 80s had caught eastern equine encephalitis (EEE), a rare and dangerous disease that kills about 30 percent of the people it infects, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He is in the hospital “courageously battling” the virus, Jennifer Callahan, Oxford’s town manager, wrote in a memo, according to the Associated Press.
Oxford is one of four Massachusetts towns that said they are at “critical risk,” along with Douglas, Sutton and Webster. They urged folks to avoid being outside during peak mosquito biting times. People there should finish outdoor activities by 6 p.m. until September 30, state health officials said, and after that date, they should try to get inside by 5 p.m. until the first hard frost.
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Meanwhile, the town of Plymouth, about 40 miles southeast of Boston, where a horse was found to be infected with the disease, is closing outdoor recreation facilities from dusk until dawn every day. Everyone across Massachusetts has been advised to use mosquito repellents while outside and to drain any standing water around their homes.
The family of the man who is infected, the first human case found in Massachusetts since 2020, reached out to Callahan to get a message to the public.
“They want people to be aware this is an extremely serious disease with terrible physical and emotional consequences, regardless if the person manages to live,” she said.
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Callahan went on to urge people to take the public health advice seriously and protect themselves.
Massachusetts suffered an EEE outbreak in 2019, when there were six deaths among 12 confirmed cases. The following year, there were five more cases and one more death.
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Those who survive the disease are often left permanently disabled and few fully recover.
Only a few cases of EEE are reported in the U.S. each year, the CDC says. These usually occur during the late spring to fall in subtropical areas, such as the states around the Gulf of Mexico. The insects lay their eggs in or around water, so EEE-carrying mosquitoes most often lurk in swampy areas.
As the condition is passed on by the bite of an infected mosquito, anyone who enters an area where such mosquitoes appear is at risk.
If you are bitten and infected, it can take between four to 10 days for symptoms to show. These include headaches, chills, vomiting and a high fever. There are no vaccines or treatments for EEE.