Plymouth, Massachusetts: High risk of encephalitis leads to nightly closure of city parks

CNN
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A city in Massachusetts has closed its municipal parks and fields to nighttime visitors because of an increased risk of a potentially fatal form of mosquito-borne encephalitis, according to city officials.

Plymouth, located about 40 miles southeast of Boston, announced the closures on Friday because the city is at high risk for the extremely rare Eastern equine encephalomyelitis, city officials said in a news release.

The disease can infect people through mosquito bites and results in a mortality rate of 33 to 70 percent, according to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Most deaths occur within two to 10 days of the onset of symptoms.

“The recent diagnosis of EEE infection in a horse abandoned in Plymouth has initially raised the city’s EEE risk level to high,” the city of Plymouth said in a press release.

On Aug. 16, the state reported the first human case of EEE this year and the first since 2020 after a man in his 80s was exposed to the virus in Worcester County, prompting health officials to raise the risk level of the disease in surrounding communities, the health department said in a news release.

“EEE is a rare but serious disease and a public health concern,” Massachusetts Health Commissioner Robbie Goldstein said in the release. “We want to remind residents to protect themselves from mosquito bites, especially in areas of the state where we are observing EEE activity.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 30% of people infected with EEE die, and many who survive the infection live with persistent neurological problems.

The disease is so rare that an average of only 11 human cases of EEE are reported each year in the United States, the CDC said.

According to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, 17 human cases of electrical and electronic equipment exposure and seven deaths were reported during an EEE outbreak in 2019 and 2020.

Public health officials and the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources announced plans Saturday to aerially spray mosquito repellent in the Plymouth County area and conduct truck-based spraying operations in parts of Worcester County, a news release said.

As of Saturday, the risk level for electrical and electronic equipment was high or critical in ten communities in Massachusetts.

At least eight communities in Massachusetts, including Boston, are now considered at high risk for the spread of mosquitoes that transmit the West Nile virus, the state Department of Health said Friday.

On Saturday, a spokesman for Dr. Anthony Fauci said the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases was recovering at home after being hospitalized for West Nile virus.