United States: As per the official report, a town in Massachusetts has ordered the closing down of its municipal parks and fields for nighttime visitors due to rising concerns about contracting a disease from a highly dangerous mosquito-borne encephalitis.
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On Friday, Plymouth, which lies 40 miles southeast of Boston, also announced closures after the risk of extremely rare Eastern equine encephalitis prevailed in the town.
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health report suggests that the mortality rate is about 33 to 70 percent, where most of the death cases appear two to ten days post the initiation of symptoms.
According to the Town of Plymouth release, “The recent EEE infection diagnosed in a horse exposed in Plymouth initially raised the Town’s EEE risk level to high,” as CNN Health reported.
As per Massachusetts Public Health Commissioner Robbie Goldstein, “EEE is a rare but serious disease and a public health concern,” and “We want to remind residents of the need to protect themselves from mosquito bites, especially in areas of the state where we are seeing EEE activity.”
Cases of EEE disease
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there are about 30 percent of the total people infected with EEE lose their lives, whereas several others face several neurological problems.
Moreover, the disease is deemed to be highly rare, and only eleven human cases of EEE are reported by the US authorities annually.
Early intervention by the authorities
As the health officials of the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources revealed its plan on Saturday, there would be an aerial spray for mosquitoes in the Plymouth County area, along with truck-mounted spraying in parts of Worcester County, as CNN Health reported.
According to the state’s health department, there are a minimum of eight municipalities in Massachusetts, including Boston, which is also “now considered to be at high risk” for mosquitoes carrying the West Nile virus,” said on Friday.