High #Mosquito-Borne #Encephalitis Risk Prompts #Massachusetts Town to Close #Parks, Fields at Night

The town of Plymouth, Massachusetts, has taken the drastic step of closing its parks and fields to nighttime visitors due to an elevated risk of Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE), a rare but potentially deadly mosquito-borne disease. The town, located about 40 miles southeast of Boston, made the announcement Friday after a recent EEE infection in a local horse raised the risk level to high. EEE is an extremely rare disease that can be transmitted to humans through mosquito bites. The Massachusetts Department of Public Health warns that the disease has a high fatality rate, with 33% to 70% of cases resulting in death within two to ten days of symptom onset. “The recent EEE infection diagnosed in a horse exposed in Plymouth initially raised the Town’s EEE risk level to high,” Plymouth town officials stated in a news release. The first human case of EEE in Massachusetts this year was reported on August 16 in Worcester County, marking the first occurrence since 2020. The infected individual,