CNN
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A Massachusetts city has closed its municipal parks and fields to nighttime guests amid a heightened threat of a probably lethal sort of mosquito-borne encephalitis, based on city officers.
Plymouth, about 40 miles southeast of Boston, introduced the closures Friday because the city faces a excessive threat from the extraordinarily uncommon Japanese equine encephalitis, city officers said in a news release.
The illness can infect people via mosquito bites and has between a 33% to 70% fatality charge, with most deaths occurring from two to 10 days after signs start, based on the Massachusetts Division of Public Well being.
“The latest EEE an infection identified in a horse uncovered in Plymouth initially raised the City’s EEE threat degree to excessive,” the City of Plymouth mentioned within the launch.
On August 16, the state reported its first human case of EEE of the 12 months and the primary since 2020 after a man in his 80s was uncovered in Worcester County, prompting well being officers to boost the chance degree of the illness in close by communities, the general public well being division mentioned in a information launch.
“EEE is a uncommon however critical illness and a public well being concern,” Massachusetts public well being commissioner Robbie Goldstein mentioned within the launch. “We wish to remind residents of the necessity to shield themselves from mosquito bites, particularly in areas of the state the place we’re seeing EEE exercise.”
Round 30% of people infected with EEE die and lots of who survive an infection reside with ongoing neurological issues, based on the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention.
The illness is so uncommon, a mean of solely 11 human cases of EEE are reported in the USA yearly, the CDC mentioned.
There have been 17 reported human circumstances of EEE and 7 deaths throughout an EEE outbreak in Massachusetts in 2019 and 2020, based on the state’s public well being division.
Public well being officers and the Massachusetts Division of Agricultural Sources introduced plans Saturday to spray aerially for mosquitoes within the Plymouth County space and to conduct truck-mounted spraying in elements of Worcester County, based on a information launch.
By Saturday, the EEE risk level was excessive or important for 10 Massachusetts communities.
At the least eight municipalities in Massachusetts, together with Boston, are additionally “now thought of to be at excessive threat” for mosquitoes carrying the West Nile virus, the state’s well being division mentioned Friday.
On Saturday, a spokesperson for Dr. Anthony Fauci mentioned the previous director of the Nationwide Institute of Allergy and Infectious Ailments was recovering at house after being hospitalized with West Nile virus.